The World Without Fear
by optimus304
Summary: Sevreal months after the events of New Dawn, The Gang try to get thier lives back together. Aelita and Jeremy try to handle thier relationships, Odd tries to seek one with Sissi, And Ulrich and Yumi feel uncomforatble about the changes. Yet silently, Old villians will return. And new threats and problems which will Destroy the world that they love. Live In Fear.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

_Moscow, Russia_

_5 days after X-Day_

That day was brisk and cold. Snow fell from the dark and cloudy sky above Moscow. Large mounds of snow stood along the sidewalks near the eerily empty Red Square. The Kremlin stood tall above the once proud and majestic capital of Russia.

Down below destruction prevailed. Many buildings were on fire and the streets were littered with debris and wrecked cars. Civilians were running hastily in search for safe hiding spots. The few who stayed uncovered were dragging the wounded soldiers, who attempted to stand and defend the city, off the streets. Some of the troops were still alive, but many others were not so fortunate…

A lone figure of a boy emerged from the smoke. His face was covered in dirt and blood and his glasses were broken and shattered. His blonde hair were a mess. He limped a little on his left leg as he walked; on the same leg was a large rip near the knee.

Yet in his arms he carried a limp body of a young girl. Her head was tucked into his chest and her legs dangled in the air. Blood trickled down the girl's face. Her eyes were closed and mouth open, as she breathed heavily.

Jeremy glanced at his girlfriend. Her pale face showed pain. Her clothes were tethered and ripped. He looked down to see a wound in the side of her leg and numerous needle marks on her skin, the effect of the past few weeks which destroyed her. He could not help a feeling that he failed her lately…

A loud flapping noise closing in on him gathered his attention. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Aether landed a few feet to his left. The monster ran up to him and pulled out a dagger. His mouth opened and his eyes glowed orange.

Suddenly, a white plum of smoke appeared in front of Jeremy. The smoke thickened as a young, black-haired boy jumped out of it. As Aether got closer, the boy ran to intercept him.

William punched Aether across the face as hard as he could. He could feel the pain in his hand and hear the sound of breaking bones, but he succeeded in stopping Aether. The monster was hit so hard that he fell to the ground and landed on his side.

Jeremy felt a surge of anger rise in him as he continued to walk past the scene. He remembered clearly how Aether had become the cause of all of their recent trouble and how he helped bring the world to its knees.

Jeremy looked to his right. In the distance, behind a curtain of snow dancing in the air on its way down, one of the New Titans was battling a boy in a purple suit. He watched as the two-headed Titan fired a blaze of fire at the boy.

Odd dodged the fireball and ran up to the two-headed fiend. He punched the beast in its golden scale covered body as he fired a laser arrow at it. The arrow exploded; the Titan flew in the air and landed on its back next to Jeremy's feet.

Having glanced at its ugly face, Jeremy remembered how this one almost killed one of his friends. He remembered the pain and fear racing through all of their minds as they saw what this beast had done and how many people it hurt before it left.

Suddenly, a large fireball leapt off the ground, followed by a thundering boom from the explosion. Shrapnel and sparks flew everywhere; the flames lept into the air. Jeremy tilted his body to the left, trying to protect Aelita from the shrapnel. He felt hot burning sparks bounce off him, followed by the thudding pain of metal hitting him. Yet his mind was still fixed on Aelita.

He then noticed a car which stood close by. It was actually in pretty good shape, considering the amount of bullet holes and shattered glass on the ground. Considering it a safe spot, Jeremy gently laid his injured angel on the hood of the car. Her eyes slowly opened. As he removed his hands from her back, Aelita winced and squirmed in pain. Suddenly, she gagged and spit. Jeremy saw what she had spit out of her mouth. It was blood.

Jeremy then heard a distinct sound of claw like footsteps approaching from in front of them. He slowly looked up and saw the face of his greatest enemy… the one thing that haunted Aelita to this day.

Xervix emerged from the dense smoke and snow like a ghost. In his claws he carried his scythe, which gleamed in the darkness of the day. It seemed he hadn't spotted them yet, however, it was a question of time. In Aelita's and his condition, Jeremy knew that escape was not a option.

Jeremy stepped back from Aelita. Suddenly, he felt her faint hand grab his shirt. He looked down and saw Aelita's tear filled eyes looking up at him. One of her eyes was swollen so bad he could barely make out her eye, while blood dripped into the other one.

"I love you," he whispered as he leaned down and kissed her on the lips. He let go of Aelita's hand as he turned to walk towards Xervix. Streams of tears poured from his face. He knew this was it.

Aelita laid on her back, helpless. Blood trickled down from one of her eye sockets. She was so cold, hungry and tired. Her body felt unbelievably weak. She tried to help, tried to fight with her friends, but had fallen short.

Despite her blurry vision and headache, Aelita tried to focus on Jeremy. Yet she noticed a faint blue glow coming from her right hand. She thought for a second it was just her imagination, but she soon realized it really _was _glowing.

She shifted her vision back to Jeremy in a distance. Suddenly, she saw a form of a creature walking towards him. It was tall and massive. As she recognized more details on the beast, Aelita's heart froze.

"No... No..." Aelita said quietly as fear took control of her lungs.

She tried to reach her hand out, warn Jeremy of the danger somehow, but found no strength to do anything. Her hand, weak and bloodied, just laid on the hood of the car.

Meanwhile, Xervix looked up and spotted his target. It was a face Jeremy was all too familiar with. He could make out the head of the beast, a large wolf like skull with protruded snout, horns on the side and a large scythe.

The beast slowly walked towards Jeremy. Its claw like feet punctured holes in the ground as it slowly made its way forwards. The beast lifted its foot up and kicked a large car out of its way. The car skidded onto the sidewalk. Xervix glared down at Jeremy, his eyes glowed bright red.

The boy also approached the beast in suicidal desperation. Jeremy's heart raced as he realized what exactly he was doing. His eyes watered as he realized that he may not see his parents or Aelita again.

But he knew what he had to do. There was no one else to protect Aelita.

"I know what you want and you know what I must do." Jeremy said as he finally came to a stop in front of Xervix. "Just promise me one thing. Please, don't hurt Aelita!"

Xervix stopped also as he stood within a few feet away from Jeremy.

"I SHALL PROMISE YOU NOTHING, WORM!" he shouted. Then Xervix stopped and looked at the weak, wounded boy. "Have you come to… surrender?"

"No! I'm here to fight you!" Jeremy shouted so loud that it even startled Xervix.

"Fight me? But you have no weapons, no powers... And no hope."

"I don't care! I'm not gonna let anyone harm Aelita again. Even if it means the loss of my life!"

Xervix was taken back by this. For a split second he admired Jeremy's bravery and boldness. Here was a boy who was willing to sacrifice himself for his girlfriend and he felt no remorse for what was about to happen.

"Humans… such irrational beings," he muttered.

Aelita sat up on the hood with great effort. She wanted to move, but she barely had the strength to crawl off the car. She weakly sat her head up and shouted Jeremy's name in a hoarse voice.

She had to stop him somehow and save him…but she could barely feel the System's energy inside her. It wasn't that the energy wasn't there or that it was drained; she just didn't have the mental or physical capability to use it. She was too weak. But then why was her palm glowing? Why was it a different color then the usual multicolor lights that emanated from her when she could use the System?

Her feet slowly lowered to meet the ground when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see the face of a thin man in camo. He had long hair and extremely long side burns.

"There's nothing you can do," the tall man said with a look of concern and worry on his face.

"No!" Aelita said as she looked down the street towards Jeremy. "Let me go. I... I have to save him... I can't lose him…"

"Aelita, I'm sorry." the man said with Scottish accent. "You're in no condition…"

"Captain Richard... Please let me go."

The tall Scottish man grabbed a pack of bandages from a bag behind his back. He tried to treat Aelita's wounds, but Aelita wiggled herself away from him.

" I HAVE TO SAVE HIM! I LOVE HIM!" she cried.

Jeremy could hear Aelita's cries from down the street. Her voice made him cry even more.

Xervix's face showed no emotion at all. He could hear the cries of Aelita, which filled the air like a symphony.

Civilians who were helping the injured now stood and watched the scene before their eyes like hypnotized.

"I love her. I love her more then my life. I just want her to live. That's why... I'm going to stop you even if it kills ME!" Jeremy said, sobbing loudly.

"Arrogant fool." Xervix said quietly. "You would die for her?"

"More than you know." Jeremy picked up a large steel bar and held it in front of him like a baseball bat. He swung it back and forth as he prepared to attack Xervix.

Xervix took his scythe in his hands and lifted it up in the air… But he hesitated this time. He stared down at Jeremy. His face still showed no emotion, though.

Jeremy stared straight into Xervix's eyes with cold intent.  
"Well, what are you waiting for!? Do it!"

Xervix looked down at his feet and grunted silently.

"DO IT!" Jeremy shouted in anger, "YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

Further down the street, Aelita continued to scream and cry for Jeremy. Meanwhile, a familiar face appeared and stood next to her. His blond and purple hair was a welcomed relief to her eyes.

Odd squatted down next to Aelita and the captain. He gently placed his hand on Aelita's shoulder. He saw a lot of fighting in the past few days. With everything on the line, he knew that their loss here in Moscow would reflect on the Earth facing a grim future... And they were losing.

"Odd, help Jeremy!" Aelita pleaded loudly.

"Where is he?" Odd asked.

Suddenly there was a loud noise, followed by an explosion. Debris and smoke filled the air as the sound of the explosion echoed down the street. The flames from the explosion rose high into the air.

Aelita curled up into a little ball. Odd laid on top of her and covered her the best he could together with Richard; small rocks pinged off their bodies.

As the smoke and noise from the explosion subsided, Aelita saw what she prayed she would never see.

Jeremy's body flew in the air and landed on the cold unforgiving ground. His body flipped and rolled just a few feet away from her.

Odd stood there, watching his good friend come to a stop. He had always known it was possible for one of them to get hurt, he just pushed that thought away from him far enough. He felt his whole body grow cold as he realized what just happened. He begged for a sign that Jeremy was alright, yet the only thing that moved was his hair on the wind.

As she realized what just happened, Aelita violently clawed and dragged herself towards Jeremy's limp body.

"No..."

He laid in the same spot, motionless; the wind ruffled his hair.

"NO!" Aelita screamed.

She somehow found the strength to stand up and run towards Jeremy. She tripped and stumbled a little but managed to catch herself. Pain and weakness in her body were suddenly gone. All she cared about now was making sure Jeremy was alive.

Aelita finally made it to Jeremy after what seemed like eternity. She dropped to her knees in front of him like a dead weight.

Jeremy's face was covered in blood, which dripped out of his nose. He breathed heavily. His glasses were gone.

Jeremy tried to smile a little as he looked into Aelita's eyes. He realized these would be his last words to her, so he had to make these short.

"I'm sorry… but I had to. I had to protect you." he whispered.

Aelita placed her hand around Jeremy's head.  
"But why? You're the one I never wanted to lose!"

"I just wanted to make sure you would be safe. I was... desperate."

"But... But…" Aelita sobbed as full force of her sorrow filled her mind. "I love you! And I wanted to spend the rest of my life and more with you!"

"I'm so sorry, Aelita... I love you too…" Jeremy said as he felt colder.

Aelita looked around frantically for any sign of a friend or ally.

"Help me." She murmured.

The only sound she heard was the wind and the roar of distant fires.

"HELP ME!" she shouted as she placed her hands on a wound on Jeremy's left side.

"Yumi! Ulrich?! Odd? Travis!? Sissi?!"

There was still no response.

"MOTHER!" Aelita shouted; she screamed so loud that more blood came up to her mouth.

She placed her head on Jeremy's chest and cried madly. She could hear Jeremy's heart beat slower and slower. His once strong heart that used to put her to sleep when she listened to it now sounded sad and alone. Then, it came to a stop.

Jeremy was gone.

As Aelita realized that, her face turned from sadness to sheer rage. She sat up and looked towards the grey sky, screaming at the top of her lungs.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1.

How The World Ends

21 days before X-Day.

_Belpois Residence._

Jeremy sat on the couch at his parents' house. It was about 11pm and the whole house was silent with the exception of a huge flat screen TV and the sound of the family central air system kicking on.

He and Aelita were on a well deserved break from school. Two months passed already since the fight in Las Vegas. Ever since that incident they both became really close. They were officially a couple, so they used every occasion to spend time together. It was even easier when Aelita came to live with him and his parents.

The channel changed as the main titles to Dr Who came on.

"Aelita, it's starting." Jeremy said a little loud, but not loud enough to wake the whole house.

"Hang on, I'm getting my PJs on." Aelita answered from her room.

Slipping on her usual, over-sized pink tee shirt, Aelita glanced around her room. It was a pretty good sized room, much bigger then her dorm at Kadic. It used to be Jeremy's father's den; when Aelita came to visit once, he decided to turn it into a room for her.

The walls were white with a pink border. In the corner was a white long dresser with a vanity mirror on top and her makeup and perfume. On the walls hung a few posters of several bands, including a picture in a frame of her and the members of the Subsonics. A while back it was announced they were getting back together. She often wondered if they would want her to be their support again.

Most of Aelita's furniture was _hand me down_ with the exception of the bed. Jeremy's parents bought her a temper pedic bed, which was perfect since the comfort of her bed made it a whole lot easier for her to sleep silently at night.

On a night stand next to Aelita's bed was a series of pictures. One picture was of her parents and her dressed up for Halloween that Special Agent Dalesman gave her. The other was of her and the other members of the gang. Yumi, Ulrich and Odd were sitting on a bench outside of school, enjoying better days. The back one was of the gang along with William, Sissi, Officer Jessica Hillsabeck, Special Agent George Knight and Special Agent Travis Dalesman, along with Mister Puck on Jeremy's cellphone. And the final picture was of Jeremy sitting at a cafeteria desk, looking up at the camera. He was holding a cup of juice in his hand as if he was toasting someone. A warm smile graced his face, the one that always melted Aelita's heart.

Since the incident in Las Vegas Aelita and Jeremy were going strong with their relationship. She felt she had everything she ever dreamed of. Jeremy was the nicest, most caring, concerning person in the world. He would go out of his way and do something that no one else would do, for example, pay for her to go to a spa for a massage. He would even go as far as plan a trip to that one location Aelita craved to see since she was little - Disneyland.

Aelita prepared to step out of her room until she realized she forgot something. She turned around and grabbed the necklace off the night stand. It was the silver locket that Aelita's mother once wore and the shard of the System that she kept with her. Even though the crystal orb turned into energy and merged with Aelita, this shard had not. It was a reminder of what she was in possession of.

Aelita also grabbed her Mister Puck doll off her bed. No matter were she went, she always carried the gift that her parents got her for Christmas when she was 4. It was just a reminder of the life she used to live back in the day. It was funny how their A.I. ally on Lyoko looked like Mr. Puck and even went by the same name.

Aelita stepped out of her room and shut the light off. She carried her doll in her arms as she walked over to the couch and sat down next to Jeremy. He placed his arm around her and she leaned her head onto his chest.

"Which one is it?" she asked.

"Victory Of The Daleks," Jeremy said as he handed Aelita a blanket to cover up with.

Aelita wrapped the warm cloth around her. "Wait, isn't it the Eleventh Doctor already?"

"Yeah, the one with Matt Smith."

"I'm sorry. I like him as the Doctor and all, but I prefer David Tennant overall." Aelita said. Jeremy nodded in agreement.

Then, a small white and black kitten ran into the living room and hopped up on the sofa. It walked up to Aelita and curled up on the opposite side. It purred quietly as it nestled next to the pink haired teen. Aelita smiled as she reached down and scratched the kitten's chin.

"Aww, hi, Schrodinger."

They found the kitten a few weeks ago outside of the factory. Aelita fell in love with it almost immediately. She spent the next few days feeding it from a bottle and keeping it warm. This was the first time a cat had ever arrived at the Belpois residence. Of course Jeremy's mom, who was a cat lover, said yes. So now not only had the Belpois taken Aelita in, but now also a pet animal. It's been a busy year for the household.

"You know… I've always wondered," Aelita asked, slightly turning away from the TV screen towards Jeremy, "Do you think that they got the idea for R2-D2 from Doctor Who? I mean, look at the Daleks. They're just R2-D2 with an attitude problem."

"I think they look like a blender with a plunger for an arm and what looks like a toilet bowl scrubber with a egg beater on it for a gun," Jeremy said, to Aelita's muffled laughter.

"I'm glad we don't have to worry about something like those on Lyoko," she remarked, still petting Schrodinger gently. "Anyway… tomorrow we go to Yumi's house to help her with this whole... _reorganizing her house_ thing, huh?"

"Yeah. I think it's gonna be pretty cool once they start remodeling."  
Jeremy knew the truth behind helping Yumi move. Tomorrow marked a special day both for the gang, but for him in particular. It was a celebration which he, Ulrich and Yumi had been planning for a few weeks. Plus, starting tomorrow, Jeremy was going to start working on something he hoped would not only end well for Aelita, but also finally set her life back on track.

For now, however, he only wished for his daily dose of Doctor Who in his loved one's company.

_Ishiyama Residence._

The sky outside Yumi's house was clear and full of stars. It was a beautiful, hot night. Crickets and frogs sang their usual spring song as they welcomed the heat as opposed to the cold winter they just had. The street was silent and vacant; the steam from the rain earlier this morning fogged up the street. Most of the houses were quiet and had their lights off as their occupants turned in for the evening.

Yet Yumi's house still had its porch lights on as she and her friends sat on the front porch.

"So… then do you know what happened?" Odd asked as he looked at William.

"I think you're about to tell us," William said.

"This kid sends me a message over X-box Live and starts cussing me out... In Korean!"

Ulrich was sitting on the porch swing while holding a Coke.  
"Only you could get cursed out by some Korean kid."

Odd crossed his legs. "I can't help it if I'm that good at Halo... Or Gears of War. Or Team Fortress 2!"

"At least till you play Aelita. I swear she's like a goddess in video games." said Sissi, who was sitting on the banister.

"Oh man... like the time we had that LAN Party with Herve and them. You remember?" Yumi asked as she sat next to Ulrich.

"Aelita, Jeremy, Herve and Nicholas against the rest of us? We got freaking massacred by Aelita and Jeremy alone," Ulrich said. "Leave it to the geeky kids to be good at a game."

"I say next game we play basketball or something," Odd suggested.

"Jeremy wouldn't do well there, but Aelita... She'd be like a female Lebron James. I mean, have you seen how she runs and works out these days?" Ulrich asked.

"Figures. Aelita Schaffer is the only person in the world who apparently is good at everything. But she has an advantage. It's that damn System power," William said.

"It's like a healthy mental and physical steroid. Next thing you know we will find out she's like an alien from Krypton or Cybertron or something." Sissi added.

"Speaking of our little angel elf. Is everything ready for tomorrow?" William asked.

"Yup. Mom, Dad and Hiroki helped me and Ulrich set it up yesterday," Yumi added as Ulrich wrapped his arm around her. "Jessica texted me earlier. Travis got the go ahead from the FBI and CIA for Aelita."

Then, a scratching noise came from the door of the Ishiyama house. Yumi stood up and walked up to the door. She grabbed a small red circular leash and opened the door. A small, fluffy, black Shih Tzu stepped out, wagging her tail and sniffing everyone.

A few weeks after Kiwi stayed with the Ishiyamas, her parents, Kendo and Misato wanted a dog. After a few days of consideration Misato came home from the dog rescue with a small black puppy. She named it Coco after the fashion designer. At first, Coco was a bit of a handful. But after a few newspaper swats and Odd's advice on a few things, Coco started to fit right in with everyone.

Now, she greeted everyone with her usual pat with her feet and licking their hands and faces.

"Honestly it's about time things looked up for that girl. I'm happy for her," Ulrich admitted. "First she faced her fear with the Computer and then the System. Now she has Jeremy and is about to get the day of her life. By the way, did she ever do that interview for Rolling Stone?"

Yumi shook her head as she held Coco up and rubbed her belly. Coco wiggled and grunted as her tongue flipped from left side to right.

"Travis said Hasbro wants to do a toy line for us. I'm still waiting for the statues." Odd said.

"I just can't get into it. I'd rather Mal-Tech and Xervix are gone. Then I'll take in the glory and such." William said.

"Not me. I'm waiting for the video games and the movies. I'm gonna be rich." Odd said as he puffed out his chest.

"Odd, Don't let the fame and fortune go to your head. You gotta remember that were still heroes." Ulrich said.

"Still the garage kids," Sissi added. The rest of them nodded in agreement.

"But one day when we're done, we will all be rich and famous." Odd said.

Ulrich thought back to the past few days after the events in Las Vegas. They started receiving a large amount of requests from different companies that wanted to capitalize on the recent events. There were people who wanted interviews with the gang, people who wanted to sell merchandise, even Moonscoop. A popular TV company wanted to do a TV show based upon the gang's adventures. Yet the gang all decided to lay low and ask the FBI and CIA to help keep them out of the media.

They wanted to ask the French government for some help first, but they still viewed the gang as a threat to national security. Ever since Prime Minister Alan Meyer came into power, he wanted the Super Computer taken into government hands and the gang imprisoned. Thankfully, the United Nations had jurisdiction on the gang and the US government was working in hand with them. However, recently a small number of politicians in the US supported French government's demands. It seemed that the perspectives for the gang were less and less optimistic...

William stood up. "Well, I need to get back to the dorms. Jim may know we're heroes, but he still has issues with us being out late."

Ulrich stood up as well. "Yeah, you guys better go." He turned to Yumi. "Are you sure it's OK with your parents if I stay?"

"Yeah, I mean, Mom and Dad both know about it. The only thing dad said about it was, quote,_ Don't make me have to remind him I have a ninja sword,"_ Yumi said in a low, mocking voice.

"Why would your father say that?" William asked.

"To make sure we don't... You know." Ulrich said, slightly blushing. Yumi's face turned pink too.

"What?" Odd asked.

"Odd... you know." Yumi said.

"Know what?"

"Odd, I know what you're trying to do. Shut up." Ulrich grunted loudly.

"Oh you mean..." Sissi asked hesitantly.

"YES, THAT! I swear you're worse then Odd sometimes." Ulrich said.

"She's my... what ever the Jedi call their trainees... a Panda bong?" Odd asked.

"I'm not a panda!" Sissi protested.

"You have a shirt with one on it, so it counts." Yumi said jokingly.

"If anything, I'm a dolphin." Sissi said. "Smart and intelligent."

"Guess that makes Odd a skunk." William joked.

"Hey I showered!" Odd protested.

"When?" Ulrich asked.

"2 days ago." Odd said in his defense.

"Do me a favor and shower again before I get back tomorrow. Your socks are the worst thing I have ever smelled. Worse then the stink bomb some kid let off in the gym the other day," Ulrich complained.

"Its a natural talent, what can I say?"

Odd stood up and helped Sissi up as well. She glanced down at Odd's eyes, only to realize he was doing the same. Both teens blushed a little as they walked off the porch.

Yumi wished everyone goodnight as they were leaving. As the three teens stepped of the porch, Ulrich looked towards his girlfriend and grimaced.

"You had to bring up bad memories, huh?" he asked. Yumi glanced at Ulrich in confusion.

"The sword discussion was scary. I don't want that again."

He remembered what happened a few days after he and Yumi officially started going out with each other. Ulrich was having dinner with Yumi's parents. Hiroki was at a friend's house and everything was going great… except for that one uncomfortable question.

"So Ulrich... How long have you two been dating?" Kendo asked.

"A couple of weeks, Mr Ishiyama." Ulrich said as he took another bite of the delicious meal Yumi's mom, Misato Ishiyama cooked for the evening.

"You two kissed or made out yet?" Kendo asked.

Ulrich gagged on his food as Yumi suddenly slammed her cup on the ground.

"DAD!" Yumi yelled, clearly embarassed.

Kendo laughed a little until he noticed the snare Misato was giving him.

"I'm just curious is all. Don't get me wrong Ulrich, you're a nice kid... I just want to make sure you're right for my daughter."

Ulrich paused as he decided his words carefully so that he could calm Yumi's parents.

"Mr. Ishiyama. I have never and would never do anything to hurt your daughter. I have the same love and respect for her as you did when you dated Mrs Ishiyama." Ulrich said.

"Oh how sweet," Misato said.

"That's good to hear. And I approve of you two dating." Kendo smiled "Just remember two things though."

"What's that, sir?" Ulrich grew a little worried.

"My family is my pride and joy... And I have a sword." Kendo said, smiling.

Ulrich looked at Kendo; his eyes bulged from his face.

"DAD! STOP!" Yumi said slamming her fist at the table.

"It's a pretty good sword. And from what Yumi said you have seen it, haven't you."

Ulrich nodded slowly.

"Good. Would you like some more dumplings?" Kendo asked.

Ulrich said nothing, just sat there with his eyes wide open.

"Don't worry about it, Ulrich. My father gave him the same talk," Misato said.

"I swear, that one time was scary. He was aiming for my arm." Kendo said jokingly.

Ulrich sat still. He was afraid to even imagine what would happen if Kendo's katana striked him.

"Hey, it's OK, Ulrich. Dad was joking. Weren't you dad?" Yumi said sternly.

"Yes I was. Besides, I trust my daughter well. And I've known you for a while so I trust you too," Kendo said as he leaned over and hugged Yumi's shoulder.

Ulrich relaxed when he realized Yumi's father was only joking with him. He slowly reached for his pair of chopsticks and picked up a piece of salad.

"I love your daughter too sir... and I will treat her better then anyone else... Even more now that you reminded me of your sword. I like my arms." Ulrich said.

Kendo burst into laughter as Misato did as well. Yumi smiled and kissed Ulrich on the cheek.

"Ulrich, now I'm really glad you're dating my daughter. Reminds me of Misato and myself when we were kids." Kendo said.

Ulrich snapped back to reality as the memory of that conversation with Yumi's father faded.

"It was like being traumatized."

Yumi rolled her eyes and smiled. Ulrich leaned forward and kissed Yumi slowly on the lips. Ulrich tried to pull away but Yumi pulled him back a little more. They stayed their for a few minutes till they both needed to breath.

Ulrich smiled at Yumi then began to look around.

"What are you looking for?" Yumi asked.

"Your dad with a sword," Ulrich joked.

Yumi laughed and slugged Ulrich in the shoulder.

"So… where can I sleep at?" Ulrich asked.

"You could sleep on the sofa or in my room. I still got that spare sleeping bag." Yumi said, holding his hands with the dog's leash in the other.

Ulrich thought about it for a second and finally nodded.

"Sure." He said as Yumi opened the door to her house.

"Just gotta mind Coco again." Yumi placed her hands on Ulrich's shoulders. "You smell good," she said as she played with Ulrich's hair.

Ulrich pulled Yumi close to him and kissed her lightly on the lips. The slow yet sensual kiss lasted for a few minutes until Coco interrupted them by seeing a possible squirrel in the yard. Both teens pulled back and blushed as Yumi pulled a little on Coco's leash.

"And is this OK with your parents?" Ulrich asked again. He really did not want to cause problems with Yumi's parents and their relationship.

"Of course! You stayed over before and all. I'm sure it will be OK. Besides, they know we're not into that kind of stuff that those kids on like TV and such are into." Yumi said.

"Especially with a sword." Ulrich joked.

Yumi giggled a little from the joke and shook her head.

Ulrich felt reassured. "If they're OK and you're OK... I'm OK."

Yumi smiled brightly and hugged Ulrich. She led him inside and brought the dog in. She untied the dog from the collar. Coco ran through the house; her claws clicked and clipped as fast as her small little feet could go. Her tail wagged like a fan as her hair flowed from the wind that flowed from her running.

Yumi led Ulrich up to her room. There were boxes lining the walls and most of her furniture was still in the same spot as before, just cleaned off.

"If I didn't know any better I would say you're moving." Ulrich said as he looked around.

"I'll feel a lot better when this small renovation is over." Yumi said as she sat on her bed.

"Well, get ready. We may need to do a second one after tomorrow."

Ulrich sat next to Yumi. "I still think it's awesome that your father got a job with Wisemen Industrial. I mean, that's just down right cool."

"Yeah, my father is excited about it. I mean he was put on the R&D for this new energy source they're working on. And the owner of the business, Miss Honey Wiseman comes to visit almost every section once a week. And she's only twenty-nine."

"Is it true her parents were killed by a serial killer in Miami?" Ulrich asked.

Yumi Nodded. " Then that serial killer was killed by the Monster Man..."

"Believing in Super Tyler is like believing in Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. Or aliens," Ulrich joked.

"Oh you never know. We saw an alien in Area 51... Or, should I say we didn't."

"And then Odd saying he saw the real life Optimus Prime... Give me a break. But that secretary was weird."

Ulrich referred to the events that led up to the Las Vegas Incident. Their newfound allies, Special Agents Travis Dalesman and George Knight of the FBI and Officer Jessica Hillsabeck of the CIA arrived and offered them assistance. As it turned out, Jessica had orders that if she was to meet a member of the Schaffer family, she was instructed to lead them to Area 51. Upon arriving there it was a whole different game. Almost all the things they had heard about Area 51 were true and it was even more then they thought it was.

Ulrich stood up and dug through the small bag he left at the Ishiyama house a week ago when the washer and dryers at the school broke down. He pulled out a pair of tan shorts and a white tee shirt. Ulrich walked over to Yumi's bathroom and shut the door so he could change.

"Plus, is it so hard to believe?" Yumi said quietly enough so Ulrich could hear as she grabbed her Pajamas out from under the pillow.

"Believe in what?" Ulrich asked as he slipped off his shirt.

"Superheroes."

" They're only in comics and video games and cartoons."

"So you don't believe in us? Our group?"

There was a pause from the bathroom door.

"OK, you got me on that one." Ulrich stepped out and closed the bathroom's door. "I sometimes feel so overwhelmed by what happened to us, really."

Yumi laid down on the bed. She patted on the side of the bed, signaling Ulrich to sit down. Ulrich sat down, only to be pulled near Yumi so he could lay next to her. Yumi draped an arm around Ulrich as she snuggled with him.

"You're wearing that body spray I got you." Yumi said as she sniffed Ulrich.

"I like it." Ulrich said as he wrapped his arm around his girlfriend.

"You ready for tomorrow?" Yumi asked quietly.

"Yeah, we got a big day. Aelita deserves this."

"Do I deserve you?" Yumi asked with her head buried in his chest.

"You deserve the world, Yumi. And I would do anything to make you happy."

"Then just... make me a promise. Don't ever let me go."

"You don't have to worry. I'm not like those brats from Japan. I love you more then anything else." Ulrich said as his rubbed Yumi's shoulder.

Ulrich continued to rub her shoulder. He was waiting for a response from Yumi.

"Yumi? You OK?" Ulrich asked.

Suddenly a silent snore came from Yumi's mouth. Ulrich glanced down to see Yumi was out cold.

Ulrich just smiled and grabbed a blanket to put over Yumi to keep her warm. As he placed it on her shoulders he saw her smile lightly. Ulrich kissed Yumi on the top of her head and made himself comfortable.

" I just hope you don't snore too loud again."

Meanwhile Odd, William and Sissi were walking down the sidewalk that led to the gates of Kadic. The streets were quiet and calm. Crickets and frogs conducted their nightly ballad. Even though it was late already, heat was still with them. The heat had been around since late March and showed no signs of letting up. But on the bright side of things, it was now the beginning of May. School would be out in a few weeks.

"So… Ulrich's staying at Yumi's house, huh?" William broke the silence.

"Yup... looks like Kiwi can sleep on Ulrich's bed tonight." Odd said as he placed his cellphone back in his pocket. He awaited a call and his impatience was growing.

"You know Ulrich hates it when you let Kiwi sleep on his bed. Remember the last time when he chewed Ulrich's pillow right to pieces?" Sissi reminded.

"I can't help it if my little puppy likes to chew things." Odd said.

"Get him a squeaker or some chew toy." William suggested.

"Hmm... It has been a while since Kiwi left his toy in Jeremy's room. And Jeremy slipped on it and fell, got mad, and tossed it out the window." Odd said as he counted off his fingers.

"What would you do if Jim caught him?" Sissi asked.

"He hasn't yet, so don't jinx it."

"But she has a good point. Jim's been eyeballing us more and more recently. And I don't think he would allow us to break the rules, even though we're heroes." William said.

"True. By the way, what did you get in trouble for today?" Odd asked.

"Tanell Lewis said I tossed a spit wad at her." William said.

"Man... Sounds like you need to hit her again, Sissi." Odd said.

Sissi slapped the air as if she was getting ready to smack Tanell again.

Tanell was still as much a thorn in the gang's side as ever. Rumor had it she wanted to get Ulrich and Yumi expelled for when they made out right in front of her to give her the point that nothing was gonna come between them. That was when Sissi slugged her right in the cheek.

Yet even after the embarrassment Yumi, Ulrich and Sissi gave Tanell, she was still as annoying and as much a trouble maker as before. She got Jeremy and Aelita a week's worth of detention for starting a food fight - a fight that in fact Tanell provoked. And she almost got William in serious trouble for accusing him of copying off a test paper during a test. She was relentless.

However, Tanell was no match for the most evil creature the gang have ever encountered. Xervix.

After the Las Vegas incident Jeremy created a program which sealed Xervix in the newly formed Volcano sector. Jeremy was also attempting to find a way to destroy Xervix - a program that would delete him and Aether. The entire gang was aware that as long as those two were still active, they were not safe.

The three teens made it to the front gate when Odd's phone vibrated as a call came through. Odd reached into his pocket and pulled out his Droid phone. He glanced at who was calling and answered.

"Why hello, agent Mulder. How was the flight?" Odd asked as he joked around with the person on the phone. The joke was even enough to get William and Sissi to giggle.

_At the same time on Charles de Gaulle/Roissy airport, Paris France._

The airport was busy and crowded with a large number of tourists and travelers from different parts of the world, who were heading to different terminals. Several planes and jets would land and take off from the airport every ten minutes. It was the main airport in all of France and one of the most state of the art airports in most of western Europe.

In the central of the airport next to the customs desk stood a tall sandy brown haired man wearing a nice business suit and a pair of Oakley sunglasses. He wore a dark blues business suit with a red tie. His hair was short and combed over. He was holding a cellphone.

"I told you to stop calling me _agent Mulder_, Odd!" Travis said, a little annoyed.

"_Come on, Travis. I haven't heard from you for a few weeks."_ Odd said on the other end.

"Yeah yeah. How's everything been over here?" Travis asked as he watched a family walk by.

"_Horrible, man. My 360 got the red rings of death."_

Travis placed his palm up to his forehead. He had heard from the children that Odd tended to be a bit of a joker. At first he didn't understand it, but after a few weeks working with the children, he realized what they meant. Odd was always in the mood for jokes, even in dangerous situations.

"Aside from that, Odd... Anything _serious_ happened?"

"_Nope, nothing at all. We were just getting ready for tomorrow. Are you guys coming?"_

"Yeah. We will hopefully be in Amines tomorrow around 3 in the morning. What time does it start?" Travis asked.

"_I would say around 2 or so in the afternoon."_

Travis looked around the terminal as he glanced for his fellow team members.

"OK, good. We got all the stuff we needed for this. She's never gonna see this coming. What about Jeremy on his end?"

"_Sissi, William and myself are going to help him with it. And its about time she got this." _

"Couldn't agree more." Travis said with a grin. "I'm gonna find the others, I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"_Hey Travis? Real quick question."_

Travis paused as he prepared for the question.

"_Am I the only one who gags at those Twilight movies? I mean come on. Sparkly vampires?" _

Travis laughed and hung up. He placed his cell phone in his pocket as he reached down and grabbed his bags. He made his way over to the customs desk to meet with his associates.

Jessica and George stood at the customs desk as their bags were checked for any sign of possible threat. Even though they were American government officials, they still had to abide by the airports rules.

"That is important paper work and must not be damaged. Please do not just plow through that suitcase!" Jessica said loudly as one of the officials searched though her briefcase.

"Jessica, calm down... he's not tearing the thing up or anything." George said.

Jessica rolled her eyes and sighed as she looked at George.

Travis walked over and placed his bags on the ground next to him as he nodded at George.

"How are our _les enfants_?" George asked.

"I tried Ulrich and Yumi, but I guess they're out... and I can't call Jeremy because Aelita is with him. I got Odd. And let's just say that trying to get info from Odd is like running a race against the dam Road Runner." Travis joked.

"I take it that means they're good?" George asked.

"I guess. He claims they're all ready."

"And we would be too if these guys would handle the paperwork and that computer delicately!" Jessica groaned as she tried to get the customs agent to hurry up.

"I'm sorry, miss. Your bags are clean." The agent said as he handed her the briefcase.

"Oh don't mind her. She's always like that. You know how nerds are." George joked.

"At least I didn't cry at the end of Dark Knight Rises." Jessica mumbled.

"Hey... those where manly tears." George said as he pointed to his eyes.

Travis stood there, looking at them arguing. He compared how they acted and how most of the kids acted.

"_I joined the Bureau for this?_" he thought.

A few moments later the three agents finally left the entrance to the airport. They walked a few yards and made their way to the parking garage. A few cars drove out of the garage as George laid eyes on exactly what he was hoping to see.

"Oh, my baby!" George exclaimed as he laid on the hood of the car lightly. He kissed the car with warmth and love.

George had that black Mustang for years. His father had an original 1967 Mustang of the same color, so he felt it was right that he got one of the newer ones. However recently, when he and Travis were tasked with the gang's case, the car had been banged up a lot and smashed a lot. When he received word that he would be assisting the gang in their future endeavors, he had the original car placed into storage and bought a new 2010 Mustang. He customized it to be able to withstand almost anything. It was reinforced with bullet proof windows and a sturdier frame. On the outside, it looked like a normal Mustang, but underneath the hood it was just like the President Of The United States' limousine. It was a literal James Bond car.

"Do you two need a room?" Travis asked jokingly.

"Nope... just need to sit in her and start her up." George said as he unlocked the door.

The three agents sat inside as the car started with a loud vroom. George laid back in his seat as the red and black lights on the dash board came one.

"She's happy to see me." He said as he rubbed the steering wheel.

"What about your old car? Don't you miss her?" Jessica asked as she fastened her seat belt.

"I do... But eventually I will return home with two Mustangs... It will be like a reunion of sisters right in my garage." George said as he placed the car into drive and drove towards the exit.

"Why do you mean go all out over a car? Its just a vehicle... nothing more. Gets you from point A to point B." Jessica said.

"It's like a ship… it's your own little home away from home. You command it and it will tell you... Plus its like the old Hot Wheel toys we had as a child, the ones we loved." George said as he flipped on the radio.

Travis sat back in his seat comfortably.

"I think it's similar to when women obsessively try to go around looking like a Barbie doll. It's a childhood influence."

This Chapter acts as a lead in to the events that's about to transpire. Kinda like the calm before the storm. I was intending to post chapter 2-4 up by this time but i have been going over this story with a fine tooth comb to make sure i don't mess up. Nor do i want this to suffer from sequalitis. So yeah im under a lot of stress.

REVIEW OR NO STORY!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2

Live for the day

The sound of chirping birds filled the morning air. The symphony of calls and songs echoed among the trees as the birds were flying back and forth in search for bugs for their younglings. The wind gently blew, rustling the leaves on the trees. Their branches scratched against each other, shaking off the morning dew. Off in the distance a group of children enjoyed the weekend morning on a playground in the park. Their high pitched shouts and frantic laughter could be heard from far away.

The sounds and light coming from the outside woke up Aelita, who slowly opened her eyes. Her vision hurt from the excess of light and her mind was still working at half of its speed. Fighting off her morning weakness, Aelita finally sat up out of her bed and scratched her side.

She felt well rested. It's been weeks since she had any of the nightmares that used to haunt and shake her to her very core, the nightmares of destruction and death. Recently though she was experiencing a different dream, which was far more pleasant. It involved her and… Jeremy. She did not fully understand what it meant, but she hoped it to come true one day. She wished she could share it with Jeremy, but she was afraid of his reaction. Despite being in a relationship for a few months, they both were still quite shy.

Still reminiscing her dream, she gazed out her bedroom window. Outside was a beautiful spring morning, inviting her to rise and shine. She spotted a robin land on a branch of a nearby tree. The bird clutched a cricket with her beak. Aelita observed curiously as the bird stood on the side of her nest. Then, a small head popped out and chirped loudly as it opened its beak; it clearly was hungry. The mother robin dropped the cricket into the young one's mouth. The chick lowered itself back into the nest to feast on the cricket.

Aelita smiled. She found that feeding ritual really cute. All of a sudden she felt like helping herself with some tasty breakfast too. She quickly dressed up and made her bed. Then, she stepped out of her bedroom and into the hallway of the Belpois house.

Usually by this time of day the smell of breakfast and coffee filled the house and Jeremy's parents would walk around and prepare to leave for work. Michael, Jeremy's father, would sit casually in the kitchen and talk with his son, while his wife Soria would be on the run to her car. The difference between them was that Michael was a general practitioner with regular office hours in his clinic while Soria, being an obstetrician at the local hospital, was always in a rush for her hospital calls.

This morning, however, the house was eerily silent.

Aelita wondered. Even if Jeremy's parents were already on their way to work, why was Jeremy nowhere in sight? Usually by the time she got up, Jeremy had breakfast made for everyone, since he recently started to enjoy cooking. He had taken up preparing meals for the family from time to time, and it was nothing small like canned ravioli or a poptart, but actual food such as lasagna, grilled shrimp, salads and Aelita's favorites – enchiladas. It was heartwarming to see him helping out in the house as opposed to sitting on his computer all day.

Aelita slowly crept through the house, the only sound being a screech of the wooden floor under her footsteps. She walked up to Jeremy's room's door. She listened for any sound of Jeremy moving around inside, but the room was quiet. She quietly knocked to see if she could get a response. Instead, she heard a faint ruffling noise.

"Jeremy?" Aelita asked as she reached for the door knob. She hesitated a little. What if he was asleep or wasn't decent?

Suddenly, the ruffling noise got louder and more frantic.

"Jeremy Dylan Belpois! If you fell asleep on your computer again, I swear-"

Aelita opened the door in time to see a white and black kitten jump past her. Aelita jumped back and squealed a little as Schrodinger landed next to her and calmly walked out of Jeremy's room.

"That's it, Schrodinger! No fish for a week!" Aelita said loudly as she tried to calm down.

The cat merely looked at her and twitched its small kitten tail as it meowed, then trotted off.

"Darn cat," Aelita whispered as she turned to peek inside Jeremy's room.

The room perfectly reflected Jeremy's nerdy personality and interests. The main piece of furniture was a huge desk, on which sat two computer towers in a black and grey casing with three blue lights running down the side. They were connected to four identical monitors, on which ran a screen saver that flickered various pictures and photos of Jeremy's friends and family. It was a computer Jeremy had spent years building and it was his pride.

On the other side of the desk sat a large screen. On its sides lay a collection of gaming consoles: an X-Box 360, a PS3 and a Wii. Close to it stood a shelf with various games, including his favorite Super Mario Bros, Legend Of Zelda and Kid Icarus.

Delicate hum of machinery put on standby There was no living soul in the room.

"Where did that silly boy run off to?" she wondered. Jeremy would never leave without telling her, without kissing her goodbye and reminding how much he loved her.

Aelita went into her room and grabbed her cell phone. She flipped through her contact list till she got to Jeremy's number. She texted, _"Hey, where are you?"_ She put her phone on the bedside table. No sooner than she did, it rang, signaling a new text message. Aelita reached out for her phone again.

"_Did you read the note?"_ was Jeremy's reply.

Aelita glanced around in confusion. "What note?"

Spotting nothing in her bedroom, she walked into the bathroom and grabbed her electric tooth brush, which was pink with red bristles. She applied some toothpaste on the brush. But before she started brushing her teeth, she spotted a small piece of paper glued on the mirror with her name on it.

"Oh, this note."

Aelita took the note off the mirror and opened it. She brushed her teeth as she was reading.

_Dear Aelita, good morning, beautiful. Hope you slept well. Sorry for not being there when you woke up, and sorry for no breakfast either. Mom and Dad went to work and I had to help Odd with some things. Meet me at the Hermitage at 9:30. _

_Love, Jeremy._

_P.S. Watch out for Schrodinger. I think he is sleeping in my room._

Aelita rolled her eyes. "Yeah, too late for that one."

Suddenly, she realized what time it was on her phone when she received Jeremy's message.

It was 9:00. She spit out her toothpaste.

"Oh no, I'll be late!"

She quickly ran back to her room and took the phone. She darted out the door, only to realize she forgot to put on her shoes. Within next 20 seconds she had her pink Nike's on and was out the door and running towards the stop sign.

Aelita ran down the side walk at full speed. Thankfully, she was used to running every night with Yumi and Sissi. However, due to high air humidity early in the morning, she was having difficulty catching her breath. She pulled out her cell phone and looked at the time again, it was 9:15. She thought about using her Savior Powers but decided against it. After all, Mal-Tech still was after her.

She arrived at the bus stop. She spotted the bus pulling up; she knew it would only wait there for a few seconds. Aelita quickly reached into her purse; she fiddled around searching for her bus pass. As the door was preparing to close, Aelita quickly stuck her hand inside the door before it shut. The door opened once more, letting Aelita in. The bus began to move as Aelita bent over on her knees and tried to catch her breath. Even with all the running she had done in the past months, she was no good at sprinting.

"Miss, are you ok?" the bus driver asked.

Aelita nodded as she silently held up her pass and walked to the back of the bus. There were only a few passengers. Aelita plopped down on the closest vacant seat next to a window. She checked the time, it read 9:20. She breathed a sigh of relief as she realized that she had more than enough time to get to the other part of town near the Hermitage.

Then, a faint crying noise caught Aelita's attention. She looked to her right to see a young woman with long blonde hair who was tending to a child in her arms. The child looked only a few weeks old; it was wrapped in a blanket and wore a thin beanie like hat. The blankets and the beanie were blue, suggesting that the baby was a boy. He cried and squealed as his mother sang to him softly.

"It's okay, Chevy... we are almost home," the mother said as she rocked the baby in her arms.

The baby cried and fidgeted in the mother's arms as she started to sing Pony Boy. A soft nursery rhyme shook Aelita to her core. The song suddenly made Aelita's eyes glossy as she felt her mind drift somewhere far away…

_Colorado, United States_

_April 1988_

The air was warm with the fresh smell of pollen and moisture. Flowers around the area began to grow and blossom; insects buzzed and flew through the air. It was a clear sign that spring was officially there.

A small cottage sat near the hills in solitude. It was a lovely, two story house built away from civilization. The sliding door to its back porch opened as Anthea stepped out onto the patio, which was a large red wooden deck that was several feet long and stood a few feet off the ground. Below was a large garden, which was as long as the patio. It was lined with a large wooden fence that matched the patio in color; stones lined the flowerbeds. A small tree grew in the back of the garden. Hanging off one of its lower branches were two bird feeders, one was for the large birds and the other was for small birds such as humming birds. Taking care of the garden was Anthea's hobby, it was her place of enjoyment.

The wood creaked a little under Anthea's feet as she stepped onto the steps. A small child in a blue and white striped dress walked behind her, holding her hand. The little girl held her hand in her mouth as she scuffed across the wood. Anthea led the child off the patio steps; the girl giggled and cooed as she stared at the many flowers that adorned the ground.

Anthea bent down and pointed. "Look, Aelita. Look at the pretty flowers."

Aelita let go of Anthea's hand. Anthea observed as her daughter waddled out towards the flowers. It seemed to her that only yesterday Aelita lay in her crib, sleeping like an angel. Now she had her pink hair put into two little bangs and she could already walk. Raising a child, tending to her family, and supporting her husband Waldo… this was a strange new experience for Anthea. Yet she felt it was all worth it. It made her happy.

"So pretty... Right, Aelita?" Anthea asked, looking at her cheerful daughter.

Aelita looked up at Anthea in confusion. She was wondering just what it was her mother meant.

"P-re-tt-y... right, Aelita?" Anthea asked again.

"P... P… Pretty," said Aelita hesitantly.

Anthea's mouth dropped as she scooped up Aelita.

"Say it again, honey? Say it again."

Aelita just stared at her mother and smiled.

"Say pretty, Aelita. Pretty," Anthea said trying to coax the word out of her mouth. Instead, Aelita made some random noises.

The girl wiggled and squirmed. Anthea got the message and placed Aelita back on the ground. Aelita walked back over to the flowers and squatted. She stared at them, smiling and clapped her hands as she giggled.

"Oh, Aelita." Anthea said as she walked over towards her daughter and stood next to her. "You'll speak eventually." she sighed in disappointment.

She wished Aelita started talking soon. She did not have any experience with children before, but she read in a magazine that children should start talking by the age of 18 months. Aelita was already three years old… This made her wonder if something was wrong with her child. At occasions, though, Anthea could have sworn that Aelita spoke. Or maybe these were her ears that were playing tricks on her?

Anthea stood up. She walked over to a nearby shed to grab her shovel, so that she could begin working on her garden. It was a wonderful thought that Aelita was enjoying the same things she was.

"Pretty…"

Anthea froze and turned to Aelita. Her daughter was standing up and pointing at one of the red flowers off to the side.

"Pretty."

Anthea squealed as she walked over to Aelita and bent down next to her. She hugged her daughter tightly.

"Yes Aelita, YES! Pretty."

She leaned over and kissed her daughter on the cheeks; Aelita continued to point and call the flowers pretty.

A jerk of the vehicle's brakes snapped Aelita back to reality as the bus was coming to a stop outside the park near the Hermitage.

"What was that?" she wondered as the images of the house in the mountains and the garden flashed before her eyes. This memory was about her, yet it was not her own. She clearly saw her younger self from someone else's perspective.

"Mom?" she whispered. "But… how is that possible? How is she doing this?"

She was so confused about what just happened that she almost forgot to leave the bus.

A second later, she darted out of the bus and ran straight down the path towards the Hermitage.

People on the street watched as the young teen sprinted as fast as she could. A few dogs barked at her, wagging their tails and barking in amusement at the young girl. Aelita checked the time on her phone for the last time. It was 9:27... It was gonna be close.

Aelita ran till she had the Hermitage in sight. There, on the front porch, stood Jeremy, dressed in a blue shirt and khaki pants. The sight of her boyfriend made Aelita's heart throb as she ran faster. Finally, she made it. She walked through the gates of the Hermitage and finally slowed down as she reached the steps. She panted heavily as sweat ran down her forehead.

"Um… Hi. You made it." Jeremy said.

"I didn't... Want... to be late." Aelita stuttered as she sat down on the steps trying to catch her breath.

"You could have texted you would be late."

Aelita sat right up as she realized what Jeremy just said. "Sorry. I just forgot."

Jeremy walked down a step and sat next to her. He was suddenly greeted with the warm press of Aelita's lips as she kissed him quickly yet passionately. Then she laid her head on his shoulder.

"What was this about?" Aelita asked.

"We gotta go to Yumi's, remember?" Jeremy reminded.

"No, I don't remember. I sprinted for the past half hour, not counting the bus ride to get here and got the hell scared out of me by the cat." Aelita said in a mocking tone.

"Sorry," Jeremy said, sounding as if he had been scorned.

Aelita suddenly realized the tone in her voice and felt bad about she had just spoken to Jeremy.

"Its not your fault... Dumb pink haired moment and all." Aelita said jokingly.

Jeremy wrapped his arm around Aelita's shoulder as he embraced her. Even if she was hot and sweaty, she still felt like gold to him.

"Wanna go get a drink?" Jeremy asked.

"Yeah I do." Aelita said. "At least I got my exercise for the weekend."

_Lyoko, the Volcano sector._

The sky above the volcano sector was crimson red and black. Small embers, red sparks and flames filled the air as the large, single volcano bellowed with a constant stream of fake, virtual magma. The magma poured out into streams as they growled and bubbled down their paths.

In the center of the area stood a lone cave like structure which was the control point of the whole sector. Inside the cave, the floor was glossy red with black lights running through it. The walls of the cave were covered with red translucent crystals and small streams of virtual lava. Towards the very back of the cave sat a large throne like structure. The throne was black with small indentations on it. A few crystals popped out of its sides and the virtual magma ran down the back of it.

A large beast with boney armor plates sat on the throne. Its head was long and pointy towards the snout, and on the sides of its head were a pair of large horns. Its eyes were shaped like the symbol of Xana; they glowed bright red.

"AETHER!" Xervix bellowed.

A loud flapping noise echoed through the cave as a large creature flew into the entrance and glided towards the throne. Aether, the last of the original Titans, looked like a man with a bird's face which was made out of metal and a single horn on top its head. His body glistened with a silver ting, as large plates of armor adorned its body. The wings of the beast folded into its arms, similar to a bat's wings. The claw like feet folded up towards his shins, revealing human like feet.

"I am at your beckon call, my lord," Aether said as he kneeled on one leg.

Xervix slowly raised his head; his eyes glowed brightly like a pair of head lights. The beast growled in anger as he stared at the Titan before him.

"My beckon call?" Xervix asked. "MY BECKON CALL!? IF YOU'RE AT MY BECKON CALL, THEN WHY HAVE YOU NOT FOUND A WAY TO RELEASE ME YET!" Xervix yelled as he rose from his throne and pointed at Aether.

"My liege... I swear, I'm trying. I've been outnumbered, though. The Garage Kids, these... Lyoko Warriors are constantly disrupting my attempts... I need assistance," Aether said, cowering in fear.

"Is it that you need assistance? Or was it your incompetence that cost you so many failures?" Xervix asked as he slammed his fist into the side of his throne.

"Master, please. It's the truth," Aether whimpered.

Xervix stepped off the steps to his throne and walked towards Aether. As he walked past a white line in the floor of his lair, a buzzing noise filled the air. A large white tube projected from the ceiling. The cylinder shot from the ceiling and landed around Xervix, confining him from going any further.

Xervix looked up towards the ceiling as he observed his holding cell. After his defeat in Las Vegas, Jeremy and Puck both created it to imprison him while he was regenerating after his defeat. It also limited his power so that he could not launch any attacks.

"As long as this INFERNAL force field is in place, I cannot leave here... But I can obviously not rely on you for assistance in my time of need now, can I?" Xervix asked.

"I live to serve-"

"YOU LIVE TO FAIL!" Xervix interrupted the bird man. "But you do speak the truth. We need reinforcements." Xervix said calmly as he paced back and forth in his cell.

" I _must_ have reinforcements. Its quite obvious that even with _their_ DNA the previous Titans lost to the children, and with your lack of bravado it's obvious I can't rely on you much longer... So, we will create a better, more perfected version!" Xervix said as he calculated his attack. "But… it will take me some time to draw the energy for such a feat."

"Shall I make preparations?" Aether asked.

"YOU! No. I have a better idea." Xervix snapped his fingers.

A clanking noise came from behind Aether as he turned to spot a Krab, a Tarantula, and a Flying Manta enter the room.

"These will suffice... like sacrificial lambs," Xervix said as black mist leapt from his fingers. "I have only enough power to create one Titan. Creation of others will take some more time."

The mist entered the monsters as they shook violently and glowed. The monsters screamed in pain as they melted into one pool. The pool then began to form a new monster, The Next Titan.

"Now go and await my orders," Xervix commanded.

Aether slowly stood up and left as he heard the pool of liquid shift and grind as it began to harden and take on its new form.

"Arise my loyal creation. Arise, Typhoon! The first of many."

As Aether turned his back to Xervix and his new Titan brother Typhoon, he thought to himself about how vulnerable Xervix truly was at this point… And what Xervix had said... It was quite obvious that if he began creating new Titans, Aether would become obsolete and would more likely be deleted.

His path was clear. He could not follow Xervix anymore.

Aether jumped into the air and spread his wings. The bird man flew through the air at high speeds, twisting and turning as he approached and entered one of the newly designed towers.

The tower was not like any of the original towers. Instead of being tall and white it was black and slender, almost like a skyscraper. Some pieces of the tower were not even connected. They merely floated off the side of it. The towers were created by Jeremy to not only keep Xervix captured inside the volcano sector, but also as a stronger security system to keep other possible threats out of Lyoko. Puck also created a way through the new towers to grant the other members of the gang the ability to shut down any towers that Aether might have tried to activate.

"I live to serve… How much longer must I follow that incompetent behemoth? I could have had the System by now, and Jeremy and Aelita. But instead, WE! were defeated, I was defeated... and denied absolute glory! All because of his worthless pride!" Aether said as he entered a tower.

Aether rose to the top floor of the tower. He stepped onto the small circular floor that was the command center. Even though the outside of the tower had changed in design, the inside mostly remained the same. Its walls were still adorned with codes and symbols that flowed through the walls of the towers. But this time they were a darker color of blue as opposed to the usual light blue. The difference was that the codes ran faster than in the original towers.

Aether approached a holo screen.

"To fight fire, you must not use fire... but an inferno. An inferno that will roast the planet and burn everything associated with your enemies. And I have found something to start that inferno with." Aether preached as he slid his palm past the holoscreen. A new screen appeared, which showed a small black dot that wiggled and dripped like water.

"So... This almost destroyed both sides?" Aether said with curiosity. "Then it shall again... Leaving me and my Titans to rule the world... under the sky I am god of."

_Area: Unknown._

Pure white adorned the walls and ceiling of a room, which was bare and vacant with the exception of a small white table and six large orbs that sat in a circle around the desk. They were the size of a dinner plate, yet barely stuck out of the ground no more than a centimeter. They were used for communication. Above them sat several large screens, one for each pod. The images on them were shadowed and black. All that could be seen was a pure dark silhouettes of a person on each screen. Their voice were masked by some form of voice changing system.

"This has so far been a complete failure. Our so called ace in the hole turned into nothing more then an evidence of our existence," a voice said from one of the pods.

Estrada sat at the table and looked at the screen. "A failure? Or a rising of the stakes?"

"From the video and news reports we have seen, the Avatar has used the System... She is no longer the Avatar, she has transgressed into the Savior. Our chances of using her are now slimming more and more everyday," a high pitched female voice said.

"And now the United Nations is forming a new organization...This Earth Defense Force. We were able to hide the Neoton radiation from all of Earth satellites but the effects are starting to sprout up all over the globe. In a few years time there will be people with similar mutations all over the world, " another man said.

"I am aware of that. I'm also aware that the plans for the Human Mentality operation is a tad bit behind schedule. But in reality this maneuver has actually paid off to our advantage. And look what that has gotten us!" Estrada said.

"The girl must be secured before the Guardian arrives. We have no choice but to capture all of them to silence this mess. We will need to put our plans back farther." another man said.

"We will not slow down our plans. We must accelerate them instead. We will begin phase two," Estrada said.

"Phase 2!? We don't even have the subjects yet!" a man from the farthest pod said with Russian accent.

"We have acquired the cargo which will become the blueprints for an army. The proper scientist and equipment are standing by. As soon as the cargo arrives we will begin work on Phase 2," Estrada said. "However, I believe I have found a useful pawn in our plans."

A small screen flipped up from the table. It was translucent and clear. It glowed as an image appeared on the screen. The image revealed Aether.

"One of Xervix's so called… Titans?" A man with a Asian accent asked.

"He's scheming and power hungry. And he is perfect to help us find a kink or loop hole in the children's plans, and to remove Xervix from existence."

"And what of the other computer locations?" asked a woman with French accent.

"We find the children... we find them." Estrada said as he stood up. The globes shut off and the pictures disappeared. "Either way we are running out of time, but at least we still have our trump card."

Estrada clicked on a second screen. The screen showed a single room with computers and monitors hooked up to a single tube like structure. Smoke and ice covered the tube; Estrada could barely make out the object inside of it.

"Soon, she will join you... A nice little family reunion."

_Amines, residential area._

A white taxi cab pulled up to the Ishiyama house.

The cab's door flew open as Aelita stepped out. She stretched a little as Jeremy exited from the other side. He pulled out his wallet and paid the fare to the driver. He placed his wallet back into his pocket as he took Aelita's hand and they both walked towards the house.

"Why couldn't we just walk? Yumi does not live that far away," Aelita asked as she fiddled with Jeremy's fingers. "Why did we have to stop by the Hermitage in the first place?"

Jeremy managed to only smile widely. He did not want to spoil Aelita's surprise by accident. This day was meant to be perfect.

Meanwhile, Yumi sat on the porch with Ulrich; Coco sniffed Yumi's face, looking at her with large, sympathetic eyes, begging for either food or more attention.

Yumi looked up and noticed the Einsteins walking down the path of the sidewalk leading towards the house. She waved at them. Aelita smiled and waved back; Jeremy held his hand up on the sly.

Coco jumped off the porch and ran towards Aelita and Jeremy. She barked a little as she was closing in. Jeremy bent down and greeted the tiny puppy. The small dog whined and panted as Jeremy scratched her behind her ears. Coco sniffed Jeremy's hands and licked his fingers. She was really quite the lover.

The dog then ran over and sniffed Aelita's legs. Coco then stood up on her hind legs and placed its paw on Aelita's thigh. Aelita bent down to scratch her small head.

"Hey, you love birds... good to see you," Ulrich said as he stood up off the porch. The group exchanged greetings and friendly hugs. Ulrich turned and held out his fist towards Jeremy. Jeremy held out his fist and tapped it against Ulrich's, greeting the gesture with a smile.

"Aelita, you look like the heat's getting to you." Ulrich noted as he looked over towards Aelita, who was still a bit sweaty and had a pink blush on her face.

"Yeah. I was running late and ran a little." Aelita said as she took a swig from a bottle of water.

"With all the running we've done the past few weeks?" Yumi asked in a surprised tone.

"Casual clothes are far less suitable for exercise. Not to mention the humidity," Aelita explained.

"I guess that means we don't have to run tonight, do we?"

"No thank you." Aelita glanced around the yard of Yumi's house. " Hey, are we early?"

"Nope...You're just in time." Ulrich said with a sinister smile.

"In time for what?"

"Oh, you'll see," Jeremy said.

"Honestly, it's about time," Yumi said as she walked up the steps and whistled for Coco to follow her up. "We got a lot to do today so I hope you're rested."

Aelita stared, puzzled, at her friends as she let the words bounce around in her head. She wondered what they were up to. Ulrich and Yumi had both been like a brother and sister to her. They were constantly giving her advice and pointers on a lot of subjects. Some of them were things she would have learned from her family, others were things that she had missed out while staying in limbo on Lyoko. Most of the time it was things she could do to help strengthen her relationship with Jeremy.

Yumi opened the door to the house. The four kids stepped inside, the only noise being the echo of their foot steps and the clicking noise of Coco's feet. All doors on the corridor were shut. The house was strangely silent, just like the house of Belpois when Aelita woke up.

"Okay guys, what's going on?" Aelita asked in her usual naïve tone.

The three teens turned to face their pink haired friend, smiling as widely as they could.

"Do you know what today is?" Ulrich asked.

"Yeah. May 3rd, right?"

"Yup," Jeremy confirmed. "It was on this day three years ago when I brought you to Earth for the first time. And today also happens to be..."

Yumi stood behind the wide doors that led into the living room. She turned around and opened them wide with a single move of her arms.

Aelita glanced inside the living room. As she looked around, her eyes caught sight of something she was not expecting. Streamers and balloons decorated the room. They were a colorful festive hue with several streamers and glitter on them. Odd, Sissi, William, Jessica, Travis, Mr and Mrs Ishiyama, Hiroki, Milly and Tamiya, Kiwi, Jeremy's parents… they all stood there, wearing party hats.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY AELITA!" they all shouted in unison.

Aelita's mouth dropped as she was in a state of complete shock. She glanced around at everyone and all the festive decorations that adorned the walls. On a table she saw a pink cake and several balloons. Sitting on the counter near the cake was a wide assortment of Aelita's favorite soda brands like Pepsi, Mountain Dew and orange soda.

"All this for… me?" Aelita asked as she covered her mouth, tearing up at the same time.

"It was long over due so we had to make it a big one." Odd said as the party goers approached and greeted the heavily blushing teen.

"Whose idea was all of this?" Aelita asked as she shot Jeremy a glance, seeing as how anything that tended to make her happy usually came from Jeremy.

"Yumi and Jeremy's, actually," William said, glancing over at the two masterminds of the party.

"Seeing as how you were staying at Jeremy's place for a while, we needed a new place to celebrate at. And we couldn't do the Hermitage obviously with the temperature so hot and no power to the place either," Yumi finished as she folded her arms against her chest.

"Oh my god... Thank you all so much." Aelita said as she hugged the nearest person closest to her, which was Ulrich. "But… what about the renovation?" Aelita asked, looking towards Yumi.

"We'll talk about that later," Travis said as he patted her on the shoulder.

Aelita looked up at the agent in wonder as to what exactly he meant.

"Yeah... right now I got a grill outside that's ready to go!" George said as he put on a apron which read _"Kiss the bloody cook already"_ on it.

"Happy birthday Aelita," said a voice which sounded somewhat familiar.

Aelita turned her attention to the source of the voice. She looked to her left and spotted three familiar faces of Milly, Tamiya and Hiroki.

Milly was dressed in a red and green shirt checkered shirt. Her hair was no longer worn in pig tails but was instead left to hang down behind her back. A gold hair clip kept one side of her face bang free while the other side her bangs hang barely over her eyebrows. She wore a pair of green shorts which stopped right above her knees.

Tamiya wore a silver shirt with gold designs running from her shoulders straight down to the end of the shirt and a denim skirt that dropped down to her ankles. The front of her hair was braided while her back was tied off into two pigtail like sections.

Hiroki had grown a little over the years. He was now almost as tall as Aelita, who always was the shortest of the group. His hair was gelled and spiked. He wore a blue buttoned shirt as a jacket and a tan shirt underneath. He had also recently took on the idea of wearing blue jeans instead of shorts.

Tamiya stood in front of Aelita, holding out a birthday card towards her.

"Happy birthday!" Milly said, smiling at Aelita.

"Hi guys. What are you girls doing here?" Aelita asked.

"Mom said I could bring Milly and Tamiya was gonna stay at school all day, so... here we are." Hiroki said as he hugged his girlfriend.

Aelita took the card from Tamiya. She glanced inside and read the card out loud.

"I hear it's your birthday, and that's great to hear. Hopefully we'll get you something better next year."

She opened the card; inside were the signatures of Milly, Tamiya and Hiroki. She also spotted 5 Euros, tucked away inside.

"Aww, you guys didn't have to get me anything," she said, handing the money back to the trio.

"It's OK Aelita, really. Just don't spend it all in one place." Hiroki said in a cheerful tone.

"Well… thank you. It's great to see you two here." Aelita said as Jeremy walked over towards her in the meantime.

After the 3 kids walked off, she whispered into Jeremy's ear:

"I know they know about us being heroes and all. But what about the agents?"

"Don't worry about it. Hiroki knows but he's not gonna say anything to Milly or Tamiya. Besides we got it covered... Watch this." Jeremy whispered back. He turned and faced George as the cook and Kendo walked out towards the patio.

"Hey Uncle George... Make sure you throw cheese on my burger."

George paused a little in confusion. Finally, he remembered and turned to face Jeremy.

"Got it. Extra pickles." he said jokingly.

Jeremy turned to face Aelita who watched the whole thing.

"You didn't have to plan a whole party for me Jeremy." Aelita said in a sweet voice.

"Now that we know your birth date and all, we had to celebrate it in some way."

Aelita quickly hugged Jeremy as she smiled.

"This is my first official birthday back on Earth... Thank you."

She leaned forward and kissed Jeremy. But no sooner than she did, she realized someone was staring at them.

It was a young boy approximately the same age as Hiroki. He wore a dark purple and yellow shirt with a pair of khaki shorts and a white jacket which was buttoned up to his chest so that the yellow shirt was visible. He looked unrecognizable with the exception of one thing... purple hair.

Aelita turned in his direction.

"Who are you?" she asked hesitantly. He reminded her of someone. Suddenly, she realized who.

"Are... you... kidding me?" she said in disbelief.

"Hi Aelita. You might know a doll version of me…"

"Mister Puck? But… how?!" shocked Aelita asked.

The boy who turned out to be Mister Puck came closer to her and gave her a hug.

"That's quite a crazy story," he said.

He was paused when at this exact same moment Soria and Michael called everyone to the table. Michael held a knife and started cutting the birthday cake. Of course, Aelita was the first to get a slice.

Soon afterwards the guests moved from the interior of the house to the outside patio and the garden, some of them still holding little paper plates with their slices of cake. Misato, Kendo, Jessica, Michael and Soria chatted it up on chairs and benches on the patio. George and Travis ate their cake fast, since they were responsible for the barbecue. They stood by the grill and started to prepare the food: hot dogs, cheeseburgers and Aelita's favorites, salmon and shrimp. They hurried, since it was obvious that cake would not feed everyone for too long.

The only person who did not eat the cake was Mister Puck. However, it seemed to bother no one. He looked at the guests and the surrounding world with curiosity.

"So, Puck, how did you manage to get here?" Aelita asked as they sat with the others on the grass in the garden. "Is it… your real body?"

"I did not undergo true materialization process," Mister Puck explained. "I had way too little time to adjust Code Earth program properly. I'm sorry."

"You're a specter then," Aelita concluded.

Puck saddened when she made that observation. It reminded him of the talk he had with the others a few hours ago, when they prepared to send him to Earth.

"_If you tweaked Code Earth… could you make Puck human?" Ulrich asked Jeremy._

"_Yes. And the offer does still stand," Jeremy said towards Puck. _

_He grunted as he had been over this argument a hundred times before with both Jeremy and Aelita. _

"_I already told you that I can't. I can't leave the computer till Xervix is dealt with and I don't want to be human... I'm fine as I am. What does the human world have to offer that Lyoko or the internet don't?" _

"_Your sister... Us. There's so much more that can be seen then just through a computer screen," Yumi argued._

"_No... I can see it all just fine," he said. "And Aelita may be like a sister to me, but we are not flesh and blood relation..." That comment hurt him a little. "I don't want to talk about it anymore…"_

"Hey, Puck!" Aelita called him, which made him snap out of his flashback. "Shouldn't you have your original clothes on?"

"Yeah," he sighed. "But we decided that they would drag too much attention. Travis gave me those," he added as he pointed at his shirt.

"This world is incredible, isn't it?" she asked suddenly.

"It's so much different than Lyoko. You should see my reaction when I came out of the scanner."

Aelita smiled. "I can relate to that. Although…" _it's even better when you are truly human_, she wanted to say, but bit her tongue. "I'm really glad you are here," she added quickly.

Mister Puck immediately lightened up. "Me too. It means a lot."

Meanwhile, by the grill, Misato walked over and asked Travis to apply some oriental seasoning to the seafood. Travis was hesitant when Misato told him to add some more spices, but her smile reassured him that she knew what she was doing.

"I must say Mrs Ishiyama that you have a very nice home here." Travis said as he put down the spices and grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler.

"Why thank you," Misato said as she observed the two agents at work with curiosity. "You know, I'm new to this, the men cooking the food, even after all these years in France. It's not really a Japanese custom."

"It's a common courtesy in America," George said as he flipped over a few pieces of meat.

"Well… I'm very grateful for this." Misato said as she bowed her head in a traditional Japanese style.

"Don't worry. I mean, we are using your house after all. We should be grateful to _you_." Travis said.

"I don't know much of the situation, which is probably for the best. But I know that Aelita and Jeremy have been good friends of my daughter for years, and even friends of my son. When we lived in Japan, Yumi didn't have a lot of friends, so its nice to see our daughter have some."

"Your daughter is a good kid. We can tell she gets that from her parents." George said as he took the salmon off the grill and placed it on the plate.

Jeremy's father walked over to the grilling area. He looked at Travis while he flipped a few shrimp. Travis saw Michael walking over. He placed the tongs on the table and walked over to greet Jeremy's father.

"Think now is the best time, Mr. Dalesman?" Michael asked.

"I was thinking after dinner and cake and all…" Travis said as he placed the tongs off to the side.

Travis placed a little salt on the hamburgers. The red and black meat hissed a little as Travis began removing the burgers off the grill and placed them on the plate he was holding in his hand. Travis turned to see that Michael was still standing there with his head tilted towards him. He could tell by the look on Michael's face that something else was bothering him.

"What's the matter, Michael?" the agent asked.

Michael sighed as he placed his drink down. The tall slim man removed his glasses and looked straight at Travis. He started to whisper as if he didn't want anyone else to hear of his concerns.

"You told me her story... And Jeremy and Aelita told me hers too. Don't get me wrong, she's a sweet wonderful girl who my son is in love with. But I'm worried about them. Suppose, what happens if we..." Michael hesitated.

Travis looked up and stared at Michael as the tall slender man looked towards his son and Aelita.

"I love my son, and he loves Aelita... And Soria and myself have come to love her like a daughter. I just know that…"

Michael looked up at the younger American as he looked for comfort. Travis walked over and placed a hand on Michael's shoulder.

"She has a great group of friends, a wonderful boyfriend, and you two to help look after her. I'm pretty sure she is in good hands." Travis assured Michael. "Not to mention she is like a super hero."

Michael nodded as he felt a little more confident.

Travis removed his hand from Michael's shoulder. "I promise that we will end this nightmare of hers once and for all as soon as we can,"

"I hope you're right. The night she told us about her parents, she... fell apart in ways I have never seen people break down before." Michael said.

"I know... I was there," Travis whispered back.

He recalled what happened at the Belpois house two days after the Las Vegas incident.

When he, George and Jessica arrived there, lightning arched across the sky, signaling the arrival of a thunderstorm. The ground was dry and barren for the month of April. They at least made it before the start of a heavy rain.

They hurried to the front door and knocked.

It was Michael who opened. "You must be those Americans Jeremy and Aelita spoke of?"

As soon as the entered the house, Aelita ran up to them and hugged them one by one.

"I'm Special Agent Travis Dalesman and this is Special Agent George Knight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation." Travis said as he and George pulled out their badges and showed it to the Belpois.

"I'm Officer Jessica Hillsabeck of the Central Intelligence Agency." Jessica introduced herself as she showed them her badge as well.

"My name is Michael Belpois and this is my wife Soria Belpois." Michael said as they took turns shaking hands.

"They're not in trouble with the American government, are they?" Soria asked.

"No ma'am. Far from it actually. They are looked upon as heroes to the world and they're helping us with a case. So why would they be in trouble?" George assured them.

They all sat around the large dining room table.

"We understand you have some questions and some concerns. Jeremy and Aelita asked us to come and help clarify some questions you might have," said Jessica.

"We are concerned about the children. One day we're sending them to school... the next they're in the news being super heroes... What is going on?" Soria asked. "They could get hurt or killed."

"Mom, it's no..." Jeremy said until Aelita grabbed his arm. Resentment could be seen on her face. "You sure you want to do this?" he asked her.

"They have to know." Aelita said.

Jeremy shook his head as Aelita turned to face her boyfriend's family.

"My name is Aelita Schaffer... Not Stones.. I'm not Odds cousin or Canadian... I'm American. My father's name is Waldo Schaffer and my mother is Anthea Schaffer. They both worked for a company in America on a project... Project Vorseas and Project Carthage. The company they worked for, Mal-Tech, discovered an object in Alaska called the System. It's a source of energy that can create life... or destroy it. My mother is actually from a parallel dimension... from another world. She brought the System to Earth and met my father. They got married and gave birth to me," Aelita said as she bowed her head.

Travis already knew it all, but Soria and Michael looked at Aelita in disbelief. His initial reaction was exactly the same. He was in denial, thinking of Aelita's story as sci-fi movie plot. Now he knew it was all true, but was in doubt whether Jeremy's parents would believe her story. He felt nervous as he observed Michael and Soria's reactions.

"They both realized what Mal-Tech's plan was and left. But they came after my family, and one day in front of my eyes they..." Aelita paused. Tears began to stream down her face. "They took my mother away. I was 5 when it happened."

"Oh my god..." Soria said. She covered her mouth as she let the words sink right in.

"I haven't seen her since…" Aelita started to sob.

"Why didn't the Americans do anything about it?" Michael asked as he turned from Aelita towards Travis.

"We did, Mr. Belpois, but Mal-tech forced an agent who took care of them to reveal where they were." George answered.

"You poor thing, you…" Soria said as she tried to stand up. Tears formed in her eyes.

Aelita held up her hand to stop her from walking over and hugging her.

"There's more. My father came here... to France. He knew Mal-Tech would come after us eventually. So he built a supercomputer to protect us and stop Project Carthage."

"What's that Project Carthage?" Michael asked.

"It was a project developed in the 80's to disable enemy communications, such as the former Soviet Union's… but the more we have investigated, the more we believe it was a project that was meant to incite global war. They would use the System and our own computers to take over the rest of the world." Jessica answered.

"Mind you... What is spoken of at this table, stays at this table." George said as he wanted to make it clear that the story that Aelita was telling was confidential.

Meanwhile, Aelita calmed down a little and continued.

"My father built the computer and an A.I. named Xana to help regulate it. But… they found us eventually. My father discovered a way to transfer some one into the computer, so he sent us in. But the A.I. became self aware. It became a threat and tried to destroy us, so my father shut down the computer. That happened on June 6th 1994. I was trapped inside of it for ten years."

"It's the same month Jeremy was born," Michael noted.

Travis and the other feds perked their heads up at the news. It was quite the coincidence... Almost too much of a coincidence.

Jeremy wrapped his arm around Aelita.

"All these years later, Jeremy found the computer and turned it on. We met for the first time. Ulrich, Yumi, Jeremy and Odd helped me fight Xana. They freed me from the computer and we destroyed Xana together." Aelita said, but her voice broke and her eyes filled up with tears again.

"What of your father?" Soria asked. "Did he make it out?"

"He died... protecting us." Aelita said as she wiped the tears from her eyes. Jeremy did not stop comforting her this whole time. "He died right in front of me. I promised to save him... And I couldn't even do that... I never got to tell him goodbye…" she said as she cried.

"She's all alone now... She has no one but me and the others." Jeremy said as Aelita sat up and tried to dry her eyes.

"I don't exist either. There's no records of me... My family is gone because of me... It's all my fault!" she cried angrily.

"Oh honey, it's not your fault... It's that organization's fault." Soria said as she stood up and walked over to comfort the teary eyed teen.

"So then what happened?" Michael asked. Travis felt obliged to finish for Aelita.

"Well, the organization still wants her. They created a new A.I. named Xervix. We found the System, but they're still out there. Now Xervix is sealed inside the computer and Aelita has the System. But as long as the ones responsible for this all are out there..."

"She will never be safe." Michael concluded. "What happens now?"

"That's why I told you all of this... And why I asked that they be here." Aelita said as she pointed towards the feds. "Agent Dalesman... Travis. I wanna go into protective custody."

Jeremy slowly stood up and looked at Travis, then back to Aelita. "What?"

"I don't want to lose you or the others the way I lost my parents. I couldn't live with myself."

"But we lasted this long... And done so much!" Jeremy said with panic in his voice.

"And what if something happens? What if they come for me and you get hurt or worse?" Aelita asked as she looked at her boyfriend. "I love you too much to lose you."

"Then we will do what we always do. We will fight them till we win!" Jeremy said, trying to reassure his girlfriend.

"You can't be sure. I would rather die then see everyone I love vanish... especially you. That's why I gotta go."

"But... Aelita..." Jeremy said as tears formed in his eyes.

"I CAN'T LOSE YOU LIKE I LOST MY FAMILY!" Aelita shouted with tears in her eyes as a loud clap of thunder echoed through the silent house.

Travis stepped forward as Soria stepped out of the way.

"You know, I've only known you kids for a few weeks... And from what I've seen, I think you're safer here than anywhere else. Even an anonymous orphanage."

"No child belongs in a orphanage!" Soria protested. She looked towards her husband, who shook his head in agreement.

"But… if they come for me... and they hurt Jeremy..." Aelita mumbled.

"You got six friends who just saved the Earth from virtual monsters... And you got three American government agents who are trained to handle any scenario. Plus, you're a super powered being who can fly, shoot lasers and Lord knows what else. I feel a great swell of pity for anyone who would try to harm you now," Jessica said from behind Travis.

"You are an incredibly strong woman, Aelita. I've seen older people crumble from less serious stuff. But you, you stand up and plant your feet. And you fight like a bat out of hell to make sure no one gets hurt. That makes you the most dangerous adversary anyone could ever take on." George added. "We believe in you. You have our full support."

"But where will I live? Where will I go?" Aelita asked.

"You leave that to us," Michael said as he stood up.

"We've known you for a few years and we know Jeremy loves you... so very much. And if Jeremy was to lose you, he would shut himself in his room like always before you came into his life," Soria said. "And I would rather lose my house then let a sweet girl be homeless."

"You... mean... I can stay?" Aelita asked, clearly shocked.

"You're welcome to live here." Soria said and her husband confirmed with a single nod.

"FBI and CIA are going to work to give you an identity that only a few people will know about," Travis said as he bent down next to Aelita. "See? Everyone in this room wants to offer you a future. You don't have to run away anywhere anymore."

Travis saw Jeremy nod to his words as small tears flowed down the boy's cheek.

"Make yourself at home." Soria said in a motherly tone.

"I'm... home?" Aelita asked as she began to tear up again.

"Yes, dear." Soria embraced Aelita the same way a mother would. She rubbed the young girl's back as she calmed down the frantic teen. She looked over and motioned for her son to come over. Aelita immediately latched on to her boyfriend. She collapsed to the ground with him as they both cried in each other's arms.

"I'm sorry... I just don't want to lose you." Aelita said.

"I know. Me neither," Jeremy said as a sob broke in between his sentence. "Don't ever think that way again, please. I need you in my life."

"I won't... I never will," Aelita assured Jeremy.

Travis woke up when George scolded him for not checking on burgers. He quickly grabbed his tongs and flipped them to the other side. He did not mind George shouting at him; his mind was still elsewhere. He fixed his gaze at Aelita, who sat with Jeremy and the other kids in the distance.

Looking at these two, Travis felt as if he was about to break down and weep with emotion. That whole situation at the Belpois house showed him once again how troubled Aelita was and what burden she carried. He was relieved that she realized she was not going to be alone. Not with Jeremy. Never.

He sighed. He thought such love happened only in fairytales. When he was sure he saw everything as the FBI agent… life proved him wrong.

Ok. first. this chapter i think broke the record for most Flashbacks DAM!

Second, Consider this my xmas gift to you guys.

This chapter and the last one works as a filler for what happened in between New Dawn and this chapter here. If you noticed, My stories start off slow at first but gradually speed up like a train. well this time im gonna try to fix that. Wait till you see the next chapter though.

REVIEW OR NO XMAS!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3.

No longer a shadow.

Aelita took a drink from her soda as she took a look around the guests in the garden of Ishiyamas. She was having a wonderful time with her friends and Jeremy at her first birthday party in a long time.

They were sitting in a circle on the grass, talking about some random stuff and enjoyed the tasty barbecue prepared by their American friends. Odd of course took as much food as he could on his plate and ate with great taste, to Mister Puck's surprise. Kiwi laid on the ground beside Odd, eating the remains of the hot dog that he left for him. His tail was wagging as he bit off another piece of the hotdog.

Aelita truly appreciated a day like this when she could just sit back and relax, distance herself from Xervix or Mal-Tech or any other worries.

"How can you humans consume such strange foods? Especially food that I hear is not healthy for you?" Puck asked.

"Food is good for you." Odd said with a piece of chocolate on his lips.

"Some food, yes. But that cake, which is loaded in sugar and starch is not good for you in any way and it increases your risk of health issues. So I ask you, how is that cake good for you?"

"It may not be good health wise... But it's good for your _soul_." Odd said, smiling as if he was in heavenly delight. "Is that why you're not eating?"

"I am a specter, remember? We don't eat."

"Oh. Trust me pal, if you ever you spend a day with me in a human form, I will show you the art and beauty of food." Odd said while sitting across from Puck.

Kiwi laid on the ground beside him, eating the remains of the hot dog that Odd left for him. His tail was wagging as he bit off another piece of the hotdog.

"There is fried chicken, spaghetti, and let's not forget my all time favorite, gravy and mashed potatoes." Odd said, his mouth salivating a little at the sound of the food he just mentioned.

"Uh oh. Sounds like Odd wants to take Puck under his wing as a food buff." Ulrich joked.

Aelita set down her plate. "Uh no, I'm sorry, but the last thing I need is Odd calling me and informing me that Puck's in the hospital with diabetes."

"It doesn't matter... I find the act of "eating" kinda gross." Puck crossed his arms. "Leave it to humans to partake in something disgusting and what not."

Odd opened his mouth, clearly disgusted by this insult on his favorite pastime. "How dare you-"

"Hmm, I wonder where Milly and Tamiya are," Aelita quickly changed the subject as she realized that she hadn't seen the two gossip girls for a good while now.

She knew that the junior journalists had been hounding them for a while since they were revealed as heroes to the world. However a word with principal Delmas was enough for the girls to give up and decide to cover their own stories. Aelita knew if they accidentally said something about their mission and Milly or Tamiya were around, they would more than likely go back to playing junior paparazzi again, which drove the gang nuts. That was why Aelita kept an eye on these two.

"Over there, with your brother." William said as he pointed with his head.

"They're getting ready to go on a date. At least Hiroki and Milly are." Yumi added.

The gang turned to see the three teens sitting next to the porch. Hiroki had his arm wrapped around Milly as they giggled and joked. They started dating just a few weeks ago and looked really cute together.

Tamiya sat with them. She listened to the conversation with Hiroki and Milly, but at the same time she had a good view at the Warriors. Every once in a while she would poke her head up and look towards them, especially at Mister Puck. She would smile and turn away when Puck would glance up and look at her.

Puck caught on a couple of times as he tried to make sense of what Tamiya was doing. It seemed really strange and suspicious to him. She behaved as if she was possessed by Xana.

"I think the one girl is infected." he said.

"Which one?" Jeremy asked, concerned.

"The one who is not dating Yumi's brother." Puck said, turning to glance at the girl again.

"What do you mean?" Ulrich asked inquisitively.

"She keeps looking at me..."

Ulrich and Odd glanced over and noticed Tamiya once again turning to look at Puck and smile at him.

Then Tamiya suddenly noticed that they were staring at her. The young girl blushed and turned away completely so that no one could see her face.

"Uh oh..." Odd said, which gathered the rest of the gang's attention.

Puck was nervous. "She's possessed, isn't she?"

"I don't think so." Ulrich said as he looked towards the others.

"What is it? Do you think she knows?"

"She doesn't. I think there's something else on her mind," Sissi said.

"What could that be?"

Odd quietly busted out in a small song. "And they call it... puppy love!"

The gang silently chuckled as Puck stared in confusion.

"Aww, my little virtual brother is growing up into a virtual man." Aelita joked as she placed her arm around Puck's shoulder.

Puck shot her a glance. "What? I don't want to be a virtual boy or man. I'm fine the way I am."

"That's what they all say." Sissi remarked. "_I'm not gonna change for anything, I am not going to ever have __kids..._ yet it eventually happens."

"Well, not me." Puck said as he folded his arms. After a few moments he slowly turned and looked at Tamiya, who was still facing the opposite direction. "I have no feelings for this Tamiya or what ever her name is."

"Then why are you staring at her?" William asked.

"No, I am not."

"Yes you are. What are you looking at, then?" William did not let go.

"I look at whatever I want," Puck said, annoyed.

Suddenly, Tamiya glanced back at Puck. Their eyes locked onto each others' as they both turned once again and faced the opposite direction. The sight was enough to make the rest of the gang laugh a little louder.

Then, Coco trotted over from her original position by Yumi's mother's side. She walked around and sniffed some of the younger teens as she searched for any scraps. As Coco approached Kiwi, her eyes grew large. She whined and cried at Kiwi, who perked his head up and glanced at her. Kiwi eventually nudged the hotdog towards the puppy, a clear sign that she could have what was left of Kiwi's scraps.

"Awww, how cute." Sissi said as she pointed at the two dogs.

"Now that's puppy love." Jeremy joked.

Yumi patted her dog as she looked over at Ulrich. Her eyes locked on his and she motioned towards Aelita. Ulrich got the message. He stood up and walked into the house.

A few moments later Ulrich reappeared outside, carefully tucking Aelita's birthday present from him and Yumi behind his back.

He recalled hours spent on trying to figure out what to get Aelita for her birthday. They did everything from asking Jeremy to trying to discreetly ask the girl herself, which turned into one hell of a mind teaser. That was until Ulrich found a thing online, which they knew Aelita would love.

Now he tried hard to hide his grin.

He walked over to the adult area when George was in the middle of one of his stories. Most of George's stories were about his days as a police officer before he joined the FBI. As a former Miami Florida police officer George had seen quite a lot. Some of the stories he shared were so strange and hilarious that people often wondered if they were true or not.

"And so I walk up to the car and you could tell this guy was intoxicated. So I ask for his papers and he says: _Scissors, I win!_ and drives off... Then he slams into a light pull and knocks himself out!"

Everyone at the table laughed.

"Now surely that can't be true," Takeo said.

"It is true... For some reason I always get the strangest things when I am working."

"So... when did you join the FBI?" Misato asked.

"A few years later. I became part of the Florida state drug task force and worked with a few agents at the time. Then I was recruited."

The group noticed Ulrich standing behind Travis. They turned to look at him.

Ulrich felt a little uneasy for interrupting the chat of the adults.

"Um... Travis. We're gonna give Aelita her gifts now."

"Thanks for letting me know." Travis said as he stood up, holding a drink in his hand. "We better go get the paper work all set up."

Jessica followed suit as George reached around his seat and grabbed a duffel bag. He reached in and pulled out a silver metallic, shiny envelope. The silver paper was highly reflective in the sunlight. George stood up and walked over with Ulrich at his side.

"What did you get her, George?" Ulrich asked.

"She's not the easiest person to buy gifts for." George said as he held up the envelope.

"You didn't get her a gift card, did you?"

"No! Um... Cash."

Ulrich nodded his head in agreement. "I mean, what else is she into besides nerdy stuff..."

"Hey, there is nothing wrong with nerdy stuff. Marvel all the way." George said as he pounded his chest.

Ulrich sighed as he thought to himself how similar George was to Odd. They both acted almost the same. It looked as if George and Odd were related.

"Uh, anyway... how is Travis? He seems off today." he asked as he noticed Travis was very serious and quiet.

George continued to stare at the group of teens as he realized Ulrich didn't have any idea about Travis. He realized that it was in fact the day his best friend's life was ruined.

"He... just... got a lot on his mind is all." George said.

"Like what? Is he okay?" Ulrich asked in confusion.

"No, he's fine it's just..." George said, then he stopped and looked towards Ulrich. "I shouldn't tell you. I mean... It's kinda personal. Travis doesn't like to talk about it. It's really something you should wait and let him tell you guys when he's ready."

"It's not about us, is it?" Ulrich asked in concern.

George paused as he looked towards the kitchen where his best friend and colleague was, making sure that Travis didn't hear.

"Okay, but please don't tell anyone. Today is the anniversary of his wife's death," he explained in quiet voice. "He's taking it hard because he always visits her grave site on this day... except for today."

"I had no idea." Ulrich said somberly. "I remember Puck saying something about someone close to Travis dying, but I didn't know it was his wife... And that it was today."

"He'll be OK. Just be nice to him and if he seems moody or angry, don't take it the wrong way." George said quietly as they approached the group.

Ulrich walked up and leaned over and wrapped his arms around his girlfriend. Yumi wrapped hers around Ulrich as she looked into his eyes, which were sorrowful. She gave Ulrich a comforting smile as Ulrich returned the favor.

"You OK?" Yumi asked quietly.

Ulrich nodded as he breathed through his nose.

"It's nothing..." he replied, remembering George's request.

The idea of someone Ulrich looked up to losing someone he cared for was depressing. He felt sympathetic towards Travis. The idea of losing a loved one was something he couldn't even begin to fathom.

Odd was the first one to plop his gift into Aelita's lap. It was a small gift with purple and green wrapping paper and a cartoon doodle of Kiwi on it.

"Here ya go Aelita," Odd said, grinning.

Aelita held up the present and looked at it. She could tell it was from Odd because the present looked... odd.

"Why thank you Odd, but you didn't have to get me anything." Aelita said as she began to untie the bow.

"Oh come on. Of course I gotta give my best-est good friend a gift."

"Can't be any worse than his Xmas gifts." Jeremy said. "How do I go from a rubber duck to a fish flashlight?"

"Or for my birthday I went from a roll of grip tape, to just... plain tape?" Ulrich asked.

"I was poor. And besides, it's the thought that counts." Odd said in his defense.

Meanwhile, Aelita unwrapped the package; she carefully and slowly removed sections of the paper. As she removed the wrapping paper, she realized just what it was.

"Oh Odd... How did you know I needed a new hair dryer?" Aelita asked as she held it up for the others to see.

"A cute little birdy told me." Odd said as he glanced over at the smiling Sissi.

Aelita hugged Odd, thanking him at the same time.

"Guess that means you can give mine back?" Sissi asked.

"Aww... But I liked it though." Aelita joked as she made a childish frown face.

"Give me your new one, then," Sissi joked back.

She also pulled out a gift from her to Aelita. It was a white and red, pin striped bag that looked like it was a little heavy.

"This is from me and my father." she said as she slid the bag towards Aelita.

Aelita removed some of the packing paper to find a bottle of shampoo, some conditioner, a bottle of skin lotion, a small bottle of perfume and a red scented candle in a large glass bottle. On the side of the bottle it read Warm Nights On the Beach. Aelita pulled the top of the candle and smelt it. It had a small hint of pineapple, watermelon, vanilla and coconut. It smelt wonderfully pleasant.

"Oh wow. Thank you Sissi."

Aelita passed the candle to Yumi so she could smell it.

Sissi smiled. "Just figured that after a long day of school and being a super hero you could use this as a type of relax and rejuvenate package."

"I'm afraid I can't top that." William said as he pulled out a envelope from his coat pocket. He passed the envelope down to Aelita.

"It's not the gift William, it's the thought that counts." Aelita said as she read the card.

On the front of the card was a cartoon like woman who was smiling and had several hearts around her. On the left of her the card read, _"On your birthday. Forget sexy movie stars or hunky sports men. Inside this card is a picture of a man all women really dream of."_ Aelita flipped open the card. 50 euros slid out from the inside and she saw exactly who she was meant to dream of.

Inside the card was a short, cartoon fat man with a business suit and bow tie. The man had a pair of thick glasses, a thick mustache and a bald spot on his head. Below the man were the words: _"Professor Norbert Bloggs. Inventor of the anti wrinkle cream!"_ Off to the side of the drawing was an arrow and the words. _"Jeremy in 8 years?"_

Aelita laughed at the card as she held it up for Jeremy to read.

Jeremy took one look at it and grunted.

"Are you saying I am gonna be fat and bald in a few years?"

"Only if you are stuck in front of your computer until then," William said.

"Sounds like a challenge for you, Aelita!" remarked Sissi.

"I'm working on it, don't worry." Aelita cracked a smile as she wrapped her arms around her slightly grumpy boyfriend. "Still, bald or not, he's still mine," she said and kissed Jeremie on the cheek. He immediately looked much more content.

"By the way, what did Jeremy get you?" William asked.

Aelita giggled as she showed Jeremy the card.

Jeremy read it for a minute and smiled as he handed the card back to Aelita.

"Thanks William." Aelita said with a smile

"By the way, what did Jeremy get you?" William asked.

" Jeremy got me this." Aelita said as she reached under her shirt and pulled out her necklace. The necklace featured her mother's old locket, a crystal shard from the System, and a heart shaped necklace that was cut in half. The heart was pink with the letter A on it.

"Aww, that's nice. But wheres the other half?" Yumi asked.

Jeremy pulled a similar one from his pocket, attached to his keychain to his dorm room. It was blue with the letter J on it.

Aelita took the other half that Jeremy had and put the two heart pieces together, making a full blue and pink heart.

"I got it custom made from a guy my father knows." Jeremy said as Aelita handed him back his part.

"How did you get the money together for that?" Ulrich asked.

"I took on a job a few months ago, fixing the computers of the school and some of the other students. It actually paid well," Jeremy said.

Then came Yumi's turn to hand Aelita the gift form her and Ulrich. The gift was wrapped in white and red gift paper with a small pink bow on it. Aelita opened the gift and peeked inside. What she saw was a pink leather bound purse with straps and a silver chain hanging on it. The chain had an anime version of a girl with pink hair and wings, which looked a lot like Aelita's Lyoko form.

"Aww, guys, it's perfect. Thank you." Aelita said as she held the purse up.

"I know you don't use purses and all but I figured on a night where you and Jeremy are out and about it might come in useful." Yumi said.

"I will definitely use it," Aelita assured as she placed the rest of her gifts in the bag.

In the meantime, Travis and Jessica approached the group.

"Aelita... Jeremy... I need to see both of you." Travis said with a stern face. Both teens looked towards each other and stood up.

Jeremy had an idea of what was going to happen, but he didn't know how it would play out. It was the whole reason to get Aelita to a birthday party - so that she couldn't run away from the biggest surprise.

Travis motioned for them to follow him and Jessica into the house. They walked past Hiroki and his small group as they waved goodbye to the party before taking off. Travis held the door open for Jeremy, Jessica and Aelita.

Aelita stepped inside and noticed Jeremy's parents standing in the room as well. Not only did the teens notice the Belpois, but also a laptop and a yellow envelope sitting on the table.

"Um... Is everything OK?" Aelita asked nervously.

Travis said nothing as he thumbed through the yellow envelope.

"Travis? Jessica?" Aelita grew a little concerned.

Travis walked over and pulled out a pen and paper and walked over towards the two children. He smiled faintly as he handed Aelita the paper.

"Read it."

Aelita took the paper. She wasn't sure what exactly was going on. She wasn't too keen on Travis's expression. It made her nervous. Normally, Travis was nice to her.

Aelita hesitantly pulled the paper out of the vanilla envelope and started reading it. After a few seconds her eyes suddenly grew large as she paused at one line of the note. She then began to read every line of the paper slowly and carefully.

As she finished, she slowly looked up towards Travis, whose smile was as wide as a smile could go. It was a smile even bigger than Odd would have.

"What does it say?" Jeremy asked in an innocent tone. Anticipation was brewing in his insides.

Aelita reread a few lines until her eyes grew as big as green diamonds.

She read aloud, "The U.S. Government guarantees Aelita Rose Schaeffer a new identity. It includes a birth certificate, social security number, visa, citizenship of the U.S. and France, and family inheritance which includes the Hermitage, the house in Colorado and the bank accounts."

She lowered the letter and looked around the room. Her heart skipped a beat as she let the words sink in her consciousness.

"You mean... I..."

"You now exist!" Jeremy exclaimed, smiling widely.

Aelita gasped in excitement and happiness as she ran forward and hugged both Travis and Jessica. She held them tightly as tears of joy actually began to run down her cheeks.

"Oh my god, thank you so much! I can't thank either of you enough." Aelita said as her voice stuttered.

She found it hard to believe that Travis's promise from a few weeks ago – a promise that made everything she had been denied by Xana and Mal-Tech within her reach – eventually came to reality.

"Happy birthday, Princess." Jessica said.

Aelita slowly backed up and looked towards both agents as she wiped her tears from her eyes.

"You have no idea what that means to me." Aelita said as she sniffled.

She realized she was no longer a shadow in the darkness, a child who was left to the cold harshness of the world. She was now officially a living human being with all her rights ensured.

"I think we have an Idea." Jessica said. "But that's not all."

Jessica walked over and grabbed a laptop. She brought it over towards the pink haired teen. She opened the lid to the computer as it loaded up. Jessica then walked over and picked up a small thin black tablet with a pen on it. She connected the tablet to the USB port of the laptop as a small white light flickered on.

Travis looked towards the young girl.

"We are going to forward all of your inheritance to you. That includes money and property. In order to do that, the FBI and CIA has set up a bank account for you to use. All we need is a signature and pass code, and it's yours and only yours. No one will be able to take it."

Aelita looked over at Jeremy in confusion. He looked over and smiled as he motioned for Aelita to sign the tablet.

"You knew about this?"

He smiled. "We all did. We wanted to do it on your birthday."

Aelita smiled back as she walked over towards the laptop. She took the small stylus out of Jessica's hand and slowly signed her name on the tablet. The screen mimicked Aelita's signature as Jessica sent the signature via email. A few seconds later, a email came back through.

Travis opened the email and read it out loud.

"Your banking account is set and ready to go Aelita. The deeds to the properties are on record as well and stored in their database. Wanna know how much you got?"

Aelita nodded quickly.

Jessica clicked in a series of keys as she pulled up the account page for Aelita's bank.

"164 million dollars." she announced.

Aelita froze dead at the number. She held her breath; she felt she must have misheard something.

"I'm sorry, Jessica, but I thought I heard you say... a _million dollars_?" Aelita said as she looked around the room.

She could see shock on the faces of Michael and Soria. Jeremy stood with his jaw wide open.

"Jessica, tell me you said something else. I mean... surely you must be mistaken-"

"Yes. It's 164 million dollars." Jessica repeated.

"Yo...You mean I'm... I'm _rich_?" Aelita mumbled nervously.

"Yes you are." Travis said in a happy tone. "Your family had multiple bank accounts that accumulated years of interest. We consolidated it all into one bank account."

He grabbed another vanilla envelope and gave it to Aelita.

Aelita's hands shook as she took the envelope into her hands.

"I'm rich..."

"It sounds like you are." Soria, Jeremy's mother said with a smile.

Aelita stood straight up as she felt a sudden brush of coldness flow through her. The realization had set in. She really owned all that money. Hands shaking, Aelita opened the envelope and looked through the statement, which read _Aelita Rose Schaeffer. Account: Savings. Balance: 164,000,000.00._

Aelita's hands began to shake as she read the numbers over, and over again. It was right there, in print.

"Jeremy... Catch me. I think I am about to faint."

Uncertain whether Aelita was serious or not, Jeremy walked behind the pink haired girl and held his hands out.

"Anytime, Princess-"

Suddenly, Aelita fell straight backwards like a tree and landed in her boyfriend's arms. Jeremy held her there as Aelita's face looked like she had just seen a ghost. Her eyes bulged out of her head as she repeated to herself "I'm rich" over and over.

Soria, Michael and Jessica walked over to check on her as Travis began putting the papers back into the envelope.

"That almost made my day," he said as he looked towards the tarnished ring on his finger.

_Lyoko, Volcano sector._

Aether stood in the central tower, away from Xervix's eyes. His thin, sharp claws scrapped away at the holo panel as he flipped through the records and the weapon he wanted.

He was studying the Marabounta. A program that Jeremy developed to try and destroy Xana a few years ago. It was a multi-tasking program that seeked out a specific code on Lyoko that most of Xana's monsters followed and destroyed them by replicating and deleting the program. However, the program that the Marabounta seeked out was also used by the gang to virtualize on Lyoko.

After it turned against them and almost destroyed both Xana and the gang, Jeremy sealed the program away. It was stored in the supercomputer in case of an emergency.

"If I could rework this program and give it a intelligence, it would be a powerful weapon. But I must find one small piece to make it so, just enough for it to obey my commands." Aether said as he flipped through another screen.

Aether walked away from the holopanel as he pondered in his mind what could be done.

"If Xervix was created with the remains of Xana's dead code, and we were created from him... I wonder if I have the same ability. And if so, how could I do the same as him? All I need is Xana's code to bring this creature to life and give it both purpose and meaning, a chance to give it the proper intelligence to obey my commands and distinguish friend from foe."

Aether stepped back as he contemplated his plan. He folded his arms behind his back as he paced the tower platform, deep in thought.

"Xervix may have showed promise and hope once, but as of late he has shown arrogance and incompetence. The idea of letting humanity live under his rule is a worthless joke. Honestly, this would never work. Him wanting the humans to survive is ridiculous."

Aether turned his eyes to the holopanel and opened up a new screen. He glanced through it as he looked up some of the old files that Aelita would glance through when she was still trapped inside the supercomputer. He looked up many of the files about Earth and its history, everything from art to war. He engrossed himself on the information.

"Why save a race that welcomes war, invites genocide and is obsessed with the destruction of their very world? These dirty ground walkers are like a disease, they just need the proper treatment." Aether remarked as he pulled up a video file.

The file showed a desert area. The desert stretched for miles. The white sands almost looked like snow on the ground, it formed large dunes and drifts. Its ground was hard and solid, a clear sign that it was salt bed. The skies above it were clear and blue, only a few small white clouds drifted overhead. With the exception of a few plants and shrubs the area was white and pristine

Suddenly the screen flashed brightly. The flash was so bright that it illuminated the entire room and bright enough to cause the holo panel to dim a little. As the flash subsided, a large red and black mushroom cloud rose into the air with a defining roar. A roar sounded as if it bellowed from the depths of hell itself, as if Lucifer himself had reached out and touched the world.

The clear blue sky was now dark, as if it just went from day to night. the clouds evaporated as the blast approached them. The shrubs and plants burst either into flames or disintegrated completely. Their shadows from the sun were burned into the ground, like a tombstone for the dead life forms.

The once beautiful desert was now reduced to a smoldering crater filled with glass and nuclear ash.

"And I know the proper treatment for such a disease." Aether said as he smiled widely.

_The Volcano sector._

_Central Volcano._

_Xervix's lair._

Xervix forced what power he could spare into his newly forming Titan. It was a massive gamble. With the force field program keeping him confined to his lair, he was unable to recharge his energy and life points. If anything was to happen, he would be deleted immediately. And Aether would be all that was left... He couldn't rely on Aether anymore. There was something about his first Titan that was disturbing him. He felt as if Aether wanted to usurp power from himself and take over as the ruler of Earth and Lyoko. If that happened, everything Xervix fought for would be lost. He knew in the back of his mind their was only one way to deal with Aether... Deletion.

Xervix finally stopped the flow of energy and his program creation. He stood back and watched as his newest Titan came to life. The sheer size and look of the Titan impressed Xervix greatly. It was truly his best work yet.

The Titan was a little shorter then Xervix and a little leaner build then its massive creator. It wore black armor plates on its skin with traces of gold running along its edges. Four bright orange eyes sat on its face in a slanted and dagger like position. Their was no mouth or nose, just those eyes. Its head looked almost robotic, like a helmet to a suit of armor. Its head was almond shape with a jagged point on its back. His arms were jagged and serrated with a pair of long claws that protruded 6 inches away from the limb. Its shoulders were large and massive. The creature looked as if its shoulders connected to its neck.

On its chest was a large pointed piece that stuck out like a beak. On the sides were small vents which also glowed orange. A pair of thick metal tubes ran from the upper part of its chest down towards the lower part of its torso. Orange and black fluid flowed through the tubes. Its lower body greatly mimicked its upper body. Thick armor also ran down its legs. Large sharp points jutted out of its knee caps as they glistened in the reddish, orange light of the tower.

The Titan looked up and glanced around the lair. Its head turned very similar to a owl's. Instead of the body rotating with it, it merely swerved like a robot's head. It rotated 360 degrees around and back again to face its weakened master.

"My master... What be thy name?" The Titan asked as it bent down on one knee.

"Your name?" Xervix asked as he glanced at the large knight like creature. "I will decree you, Typhoon. After the Greek figure who created countless monsters."

Typhoon glanced around Xervix's lair, He noticed the large white tube that surrounded Xervix, keeping him confined to his throne.

"I see you are a prisoner." he noted.

"I am. All because of some... miscalculations on my part." Xervix said as he slowly made his way back towards his throne.

"You look as if you're in pain, my master." Typhoon noted as he tried to approach the throne.

Xervix held his claw like hand up to stop him as he sat down on the throne.

"I have been confined inside this... worthless joke of a holding cell by several individuals who I battled not to long ago. I can not leave it, nor can I access the outside world like I used to. Which is why I created you, Typhoon."

Typhoon stepped forward a little bit as he paid close attention to Xervix's words.

"I gave you much of my powers and abilities to use to free me. In my current state I am quite weak and helpless... But there is a way I can regain my original program functions." Xervix said as he held up his hand.

Four touchscreens hovered in midair as they showed pictures of Ulrich, Odd, Yumi and Aelita, the original four virtual warriors. It showed pictures and video of the 4 teens in both the real world and Lyoko.

"When I was sealed away, I discovered a possible secret that my predecessor Xana tried to use to attempt his revival... he secretly implanted source codes inside these four, which he would use to rebuild himself. Unfortunately for him, he was destroyed by a incompetent human being. These source codes could not only free me, but give us even more power and abilities like never before..." Xervix decreed.

"They were recently discovered by the young boy who created this infernal prison. He thought they were codes that had been there since the start... But I know better."

"And that's where I come in?" Typhoon asked.

"Yes. You will be in charge of creating several more Titans and new Monsters to help you accomplish this task."

Typhoon looked towards the ceiling as he thought about the task that was laid before him. He felt like it was something he could easily accomplish.

"Are there any others like me?" he asked.

"There is one left. Which brings us to the second reason you were created."

The elevator door opened, revealing the computer lab underneath the factory. Kiwi trotted in first and began sniffing around the room.

The party ended a few hours earlier. Since the gang had school early in the morning next day, they decided to stop the celebration while there was still daylight. Now they came to the factory so that Mister Puck could go back to Lyoko.

Aelita could not get over the fact that she had just inherited a fortune.

"What on Earth am I going to do about all that money?" she wondered.

"Don't worry. You deserved it. It's something that's belonged to you for several years now." Jeremy said as he walked next to her.

"Yeah. If you don't want it, I will take it." William joked.

"It's not funny, Will... I honestly don't know what to do. What would you do if you suddenly became a multi-millionaire on your birthday?" Aelita said as she slowly let a smile creep over her face.

"I'd buy ice cream." Odd said.

"Ice cream?" Sissi asked. "One ice cream cone?"

"Why not... a whole factory worth?" Odd explained as he stretched his arms out.

"Figures Odd would want to spend it on food." William said.

"Why are you afraid of it Aelita? At least now you got a way to provide for yourself." Ulrich asked in confusion.

"I'm not... It's just... I never planned in my life I would be rich." Aelita said. "I would rather earn the money like my parents did, not just have it given to me."

Aelita crossed her arms as she began to regain her composure. She felt a thin arm wrap around her waist. She turned her head and smiled at her handsome boyfriend who always seemed to be there when she needed him.

"Ulrich's right, now you don't have to worry about money and focus on school." Yumi said as she tried to help her best friend relax.

"Hm, I can put it aside for college. Hey, I could even buy that new Wii U that's out now." Aelita brightened up.

"Or you could buy the PS4. They announced it not too long ago." Odd suggested.

"I would agree with the Wii U. I've never had any issues with Nintendo. I prefer them over X-Box and PS3." William said.

"You kinda sound like a fan boy." Jeremy noted.

In response William held up his shirt, revealing that his belt buckle was in a form of a NES controller. It was mostly chrome but it was also at the same time painted to look like an actual NES controller.

"I got a NES and a Sega back in the dorm." William said as he lowered his shirt. "No school like the old school. The NES is even signed by James Rolfe!" he finished with satisfaction.

Ulrich nodded as he grinned a little. "Nice. How did you accomplish that?"

"I caught him at a video game store a few years ago. He's a pretty nice guy."

"Who is James Rolfe?" Yumi asked.

As soon as the words left her mouth, five heads slowly turned with their jaws dropped. Even Kiwi stared at her in confusion. The small dog tilted his head to the left as looked at Yumi with the usual bug eyed look.

Sissi secretly didn't know what the big deal was about either. She also had never heard of James Rolfe. She managed to figure out that whoever he was, he must have been someone important. So she just stared as well, hoping someone would explain it to her.

Yumi felt a tad bit embarrassed, as if she had just pulled an Odd. With the multiple sets of eyes staring at her, she couldn't help but blush a little. The only one who didn't seem to have an issue was Puck, who just seemed to look around in confusion

"What?" the Asian girl squeaked.

"You don't know James Rolfe?" Jeremy asked.

"No. Who is he? A game developer or something?"

"You are kidding." Odd said in disbelief.

Aelita chuckled a little at her best friend. "Yumi, haven't you heard of the Angry Video Game Nerd?"

Yumi shook her head.

"Ulrich Stern! I blame you for this..." Odd looked at his friend, shocked.

"How is this my fault?" the brown haired teen asked in defense.

"She doesn't know who the Angry Video Game Nerd is? That's like the eleventh flipping commandment!" Odd said as he placed his palm on his face.

"Hey come on guys. It's not like she just said she doesn't know who Jesus is." Jeremy said in Yumi's defense.

"Yeah, but to a gamer like me, The Nerd is close to it. Kinda like Jesus's apostle. Or his shoe shiner." William said.

"How can I be friends with some one who doesn't know the Angry Video Game Nerd?!" Odd whaled.

"Sheesh. I didn't think it was such a big deal." Yumi said, getting a little offended.

"It is a big deal!"Odd bellowed. He was acting like his wallet had just been stolen.

"At least tell us you know who The Nostalgia Critic is..." Aelita asked, hoping her best friend would know.

"Uhhhh..." Yumi shuddered.

"OH MY GOD! ULRICH STERN! WHAT KIND OF BOYFRIEND ARE YOU?!" Odd demanded.

"I didn't figure she was into that stuff, so I figured I wouldn't show her." Ulrich replied.

"Odd. Don't you think you're over reacting?" Aelita asked.

"Oh no, I am not over reacting... This is just me reacting." Odd said. " I mean, they are like two of the best things on the Internet."

Odd turned to Sissi, who had remained quiet during the whole conversation. "Sissi, you know Doug Walker and James Rolfe, don't you?"

"Eh..."Sissi paused as she tried to find a excuse. "I've seen them, but they're not my cup of tea," she lied, hoping that the gang would buy it.

"Cut me some slack, will you? Its not like I waste my time on YouTube watching two guys or what ever." Yumi got flustered.

"They're just messing with you, Yumes. I will give you the complete history on The Nerd tonight." Ulrich said as he smiled at his girlfriend.

"Don't forget the Nostalgia Critic.. He's just as good too." Jeremy said.

"Got it. Don't worry, I will cover everything..." Ulrich said.

Odd turned towards Puck as he glanced down at the virtual A.I. "Puck, do you watch the Angry..."

"Nope, and I don't care." Puck said as he smiled.

Odds eye began to twitch as he felt a sudden surge of rage build in his body. He could not believe what Puck had just said.

"Why, you little troll!" Odd growled through his teeth.

Sissi glanced around the lab as the conversation toned out. There had been something on her mind for a while that she wanted to ask the others. She knew they trusted her and they had all become good friends to her, but she was worried how they would react if she asked. She remembered a few months ago when she tried to help them the first time and they refused. It wasn't until Odd and William vouched for her that they took her advice which led to success.

Sissi breathed deeply as she finally found the courage to ask them.

"I... got a question."

"What is it, Sissi?" William asked as the others looked towards the tall girl.

"Well... I've been helping you guys for a few months now and I sometimes feel like the third wheel. It's like I have no particular task in the group. I wanna be able to contribute more than I am now. So I was wondering if the next time- if it's okay... if I could go to Lyoko?"

The rest of the gang exchanged glances around the room. Everyone was silent.

There was no doubt that Sissi had helped them out several times in the following months, even going so far as following the gang to Las Vegas. She deserved to be treated like a real Lyoko Warrior. Yet since William's possession a year ago the gang had been extremely hesitant about virtualizing new people on Lyoko.

In the end, though, the initial silence proved to be misleading.

"I have no problem with it." Jeremy said after a short consideration.

Aelita smiled and nodded with Jeremy. "It's your decision Sissi. You've been a big help these past few months and I think you would do good on Lyoko."

"Wait, hang on, she can't..." Odd protested. "I mean, she has no experience in fighting. What if something happens to her?"

Odd looked at Sissi in concern. While he agreed that they could use an extra pair of hands on Lyoko, he was uneasy about dragging Sissi into the danger of combat.

They still weren't technically boyfriend or girlfriend yet, but he had feelings for her, and he knew she was aware of them. He felt responsible for Sissi's safety. He now knew what it was like for Ulrich and Jeremy when ever something concerned Aelita or Yumi.

"Puck and myself have been working on some safety measures so that a situation like William's never happens again." Jeremy assured him. "No offense, William."

"None taken, Jeremy", William said. "Still, it won't hurt to be cautious in case something does happen. A lot could still go wrong."

"I think Sissi could work out well with us as long as we are there to show her the ropes." Yumi said in agreement. "A proper training and she should be fine."

"The sooner the better, then. Why don't we take her tomorrow after class?" Ulrich suggested.

"Great... Another human to dirty up my new home." Puck joked.

"Ok... I will go with you tomorrow," Odd said. In this situation he could not let Sissi be virtualized without his supervision. "I will teach you everything you need to know about Lyoko and becoming a Garage Kid."

"Great!" Sissi said with confidence that impressed Odd. She always knew what she wanted from life, and it definitely showed. "Sounds like a date, then."

Odd's face quickly turned red as the thought of being on Lyoko with Sissi did sound like a date. At least in this case he wouldn't have to shower or dress nicely

"Uh, hey... I would love to stay here and play who can make who melt into a pile of goo with love some more, but... I will ready to go home... NOW!" Puck said as he turned to face the elevator.

"Yeah, we will have to finish this later. We got finals in the morning after all." Jeremy said as he sat in the large computer chair.

Puck walked over to the elevator with William, Sissi and Odd as Jeremy prepared to virtualize Puck back on Lyoko. The elevator doors shut and it lowered itself to the second floor of the lab.

"So, did you have fun on Earth?" William asked.

"It was definitely a good time and all." Puck said.

"Puck... can I ask a question?" Odd said.

"I swear, If it's about those two shows you were talking about, I will launch an attack on Earth and posses your underwear to fly out of your room onto the lawn of the school."

"No no it's not that, it's just..." Odd said as he tried to word his question properly. "Have you thought about Jeremy's proposal? It would mean a lot to Aelita if she had someone who was family here on Earth."

Puck stood silent, hesitant as he thought about how he would answer the question.

"If you are worried about human living, it's not all that bad. I mean it's ten times better then living on Lyo-" Odd started until Puck interrupted him.

Puck quickly turned around and faced the three teens in anger.

"I don't want to live here on Earth. I'm OK with a visit every once in a while, but I am not OK with living here as a full term human being. I've made up my mind. End of discussion."

"Hey come on, Puck... Aelita wanted to live here on Earth long before she learned she was human. And it worked out well for her." Odd argued back as the elevator door opened, revealing the 3 scanners in the middle of the room.

"Well, that's Aelita... Not me." Puck said.

"Odd, just drop it. Puck doesn't want to come to Earth. He does not have to." Sissi said in Puck's defense.

Puck slowly walked over to the scanner as it opened up. In the back of his mind he hated the thought of going back to Lyoko. He secretly did want to live on Earth, but there was one problem...

"Puck, are you ready?" Jeremy asked over the radio.

"Yeah, I guess." Puck said.

The doors shut in front of him and the scanner began to whirl and hiss.

"Transfer: Puck." Jeremy said as the computer showed Puck's virtualization process on the screen.

Puck felt his feet lift off the ground as the heat and wind from the machine ruffled his clothing and hair.

"Scanner Puck." Jeremy said as a pair of large metal rings raised and lowered around Puck's body with a loud clanking noise.

"And... virtualization."

The scanner booth suddenly went bright. It was so bright that he could see it in his eyelids. Puck's body began to shift and alter into a form of virtual energy as it was broken down and cycled inside the computer. All Puck could do was listening to his body whoosh through the cables to the supercomputer and into Lyoko.

Puck then noticed the noise suddenly quit as he felt himself land on the ground on Lyoko. Puck opened his eyes as he realized the sights of the human world was gone, replaced with the dull colors of Lyoko. He glanced around the mountain sector. He felt alone and distant upon returning home. In the back of his mind he didn't want to return to Lyoko. Yet here he was...

"Jeremy I am here-" Puck said when suddenly, he sensed something.

Jeremy sat in the lab chair as he continued to monitor Puck's virtualization on Lyoko. He had to make sure no bugs or viruses infected the A.I. Puck was the gang's huge advantage over Xervix. Not only could he activate towers and launch his own attacks like Xervix or Xana, but he also helped program a new sling of weapons and equipment for the gang ever since Xervix's imprisonment.

"I'm gonna grab some water, who wants one?" Yumi asked.

Ulrich, Jeremy and Aelita agreed. Yumi walked over to the fridge. She pulled out four bottles of water and brought them back to the group that gathered around the computer terminal.

"So, Sissi is making the plunge," Ulrich stated, breaking the silence.

"Its definitely the best time with Xervix locked up. Plus, Aether's attacks aren't nearly as dangerous as previous attacks." Aelita said cheerfully.

"True. I never thought I would see the day Sissi Delmas would actually join the team as a full time member." Jeremy said with a smile.

"Shouldn't we be cautious? I mean... what if Odd's right, and what happened William, happens to Sissi?" Yumi asked.

"I've already taken precautions into that. Remember when I virtualized you five last week?" Jeremy said as he pulled up a new screen on one of the monitors.

The screen showed the stats of the five. It showed their speed, strength and abilities, but also something else. A large colored bar sat above their heads. Above the bar was the lettering _S.C%_.

"What's that?" Ulrich asked.

"One of the many new upgrades Jeremy, myself and Puck worked on. It's something we discovered a few weeks ago. They're called _source codes_." Aelita said.

"What's a source code?" Yumi asked in confusion.

"Source codes are codes that allow Aelita to deactivate a tower. But her codes are DNA, genetic, I mean. Then we found out that Xana installed similar source codes inside the rest of you, with the exception of William. We think he planned to use it as a weapon or something similar, but he was wiped out so the codes just sit there," Jeremy explained.

"We programmed multiple functions into them. Firstly, it can allow any of you to shut down any activated towers, just like Aelita. Secondly, it keeps a Scyphozoa from downloading and altering your mind, like it did with William's. It encrypts your digital DNA and virtual soul. It scans and copies it so that when an outside program tries to hack and control you, the source code denies it and destroys the hack at the source. So now not only does it protect you from being hacked and possessed, but it keeps your virtual bodies the same for when you are going from computer to real world. It will come in handy in case we ever have to create specters of you guys again or use the Nano Suits."

"The only thing they can't do is register your virtual soul and avatar on any of the new sectors," Aelita butted in. "But we found out that if you were devirtualized on Lyoko in a new sector that hasn't recognized your virtual form, the virtual soul gets sent to the new city sector, which holds all the memory of Lyoko."

"I still don't get what a virtual soul is." Ulrich said.

"It's your mind and body, broken down into digital information. Do you remember when my father was trying to help us? That was his virtual soul." Aelita replied.

"Sounds like you got our bases covered?" Ulrich asked.

" But back to the original subject. Tomorrow, Odd is taking her in, but William and Aelita have class tomorrow. Do you guys wanna go in with her to help out?" Jeremy asked.

"Sure... It would be like a double date." Yumi said, glomping Ulrich, who wheezed a little.

"I'll be over tomorrow after class with Miss Scott." Aelita said as she walked over to Jeremy. She grinned. "Then, it could be a triple date..."

Before the conversation could continue any further, the computer suddenly buzzed as the Superscan went off. The moniters blinked as they revealed exactly what was going on inside Lyoko.

"What is it?" Ulrich asked.

"It's an activated tower... In the Sky region." Jeremy said in amazement.

"We haven't explored that area yet, have we? The only one out of the sub sectors we checked was the Cave sector." Yumi noticed.

"Right. And it looks as though it wasn't Xervix who activated this tower... But... Aether." Jeremy said slowly.

"Well... at least we know the security program locking him in is working." Aelita said.

With a few quick strokes of keys Jeremy connected to the intercom in the scanner room.

"Guys, we have an emergency. Sissi, call George and the others. Tell them Aether is on the move. Everyone, get ready to go."

Yumi and Ulrich approached the elevator. Aelita followed them, then came to a stop and turned to Jeremy.

She didn't want to go to Lyoko. She wanted to be free from all of it, but her duty came calling back to her... that alone depressed her.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Jeremy looking at her with the same concern on his face. Jeremy also didn't want her to go. He felt as if they should have spent more time developing a way to delete Aether and Xervix instead of fooling with the source codes. This was Aelita's day and he had hoped she wouldn't have to go through this on her birthday.

But now she was.

"You be careful, okay, Aelita?"

"I will."

Jeremy leaned down and kissed Aelita's small, soft lips. Aelita returned the kiss by placing her hands around his head. She didn't want to leave him. She loved this feeling more than anything.

They finally broke off the kiss as they looked at each other.

"I love you." Jeremy said.

"I love you too... and I will be back." Aelita said as she turned to the elevator.

Aelita was now filled with determination. She wanted to finish the fight more than ever.

"Happy birthday Aelita. Sounds like Aether got you a trip to a new sector for your birthday." Odd joked when they met by the scanners.

"That's the one gift I would rather not have." Aelita said as the scanner doors opened in front of her.

_Location: Unknown._

A young girl lay on a table in the middle of a dark and cold room. She slowly opened her eyes to find nothing but the same darkness she remembered seeing while she slept. Her eyes felt like they were made of dried concrete, heavy and dry. Her body was numb and senseless. She tried to move a little, but she felt as if she was paralyzed. She couldn't feel her body move.

As she moved more and more she soon realized that something was holding her down in a way that was comfortable, yet restraining. She was strapped to a large bed like table. She tried to wiggle free, but the straps were too thick and heavy for her to get free.

She tried to look around where she was at, only to find darkness, which seemed impenetrable by even the brightest of lights. The room was so cold that she could feel her breath turning to ice as she exhaled. She tried calling out for help but found she couldn't even muster the strength to say anything. All that left her mouth was a silent moan.

The young girl was a thin red head in her late teen years. Her hair was long and draped down her backside. She had a history of anorexia and abuse by kids at school and her ex boyfriend, who beat her daily. She ran away from home at the age of 15 and lived off the streets until one night she remembered 5 men approached her and attacked her. After that she woke up in the lab with no recollection of how she got there.

Suddenly, the darkness retreated as a large bright light came on. The light hung over the young woman's body as she tried to squint and look away from it. The brightness was enough to give her a headache and almost lose consciousness. All she could do was stare at the light and try to close her eyes.

She glanced around the room to find all kinds of strange pieces of equipment. Large monitors and instruments lined the area around her. They were nothing like she had seen in any hospital dramas.

A large metal door slid open as seven men stepped into the room from the corner. Five of the men were dressed in straight red and black gowns while the other two wore what appeared to be business suits with dark sunglasses. The two men in business suits stood to the side of the girl while the doctors began to gather their equipment.

"Wh... Wh... Are... Yo... Doing." The girl said weakly.

No one answered her. No one even bothered to look at her; instead they continued to prepare for something. Their demeanor was cold and emotionless as they ignored the girl's pleas for help and understanding.

The girl looked up and saw what appeared to be a glass balcony. It sat above like an observation room. She could barely make out the silhouettes of three men inside it.

Estrada stood at the window as he glanced downwards towards the operating room, smoking on a large cigar. He looked around the room he stood in as two other agents, Agents Chris and Jerome approached him.

After his failure in Amines to acquire Jeremy and Aelita, Chris was reassigned to the current project Estrada had placed into effect. With Aelita now transcended from Avatar to Savior it was only a matter of time till the appearance of the Guardian. They needed something more than agents to stop it. They needed a force that could stand toe to toe with the gang, and this would be one of them.

Chris kidnapped everyone of the subject for Estrada's plan single-handed. In the back of his mind, the only thing he could think of was revenge on Jeremy and Aelita for the embarrassment they had given him a while ago, and also revenge on Frank Morse. Even though he killed Frank, Chris wanted to show him that all his attempts and deeds were for nothing.

"Is this the final one?" Estrada asked.

"Indeed." Chris said.

Jerome pulled a file from the table, He opened it up as he read the young girl's biography out loud. "Name...Tasha Rouland. Age 17. Mother and father Vincent and Mimi Rouland. Location Montreal Canada. Blood type A positive. History of mental stress and attempted suicide."

The other agent pulled the file out of Jerome's hands as he glanced through it. "Says here that she was pregnant at age 15 by her ex boyfriend... But he beat her badly and she lost it. Which must be why she ran away from home."

"That is of no concern." Chris said, shooting a glance towards Jerome. "After today Tasha Rouland will be found dead in a back alley, the result of starvation."

Estrada took the file and glanced through it. He laid the file on the table as he stepped back. He placed his cigar in the ashtray. The stench filled the room so badly it would make any normal person gag. Estrada then walked over to a nearby computer terminal; the long and large machine looked like a metal desk with the computer built into it. Several buttons and monitors lined it as they showed the stats of a giant monster.

The door to the observation booth slid open as a young woman walked into the room. She wore a large white lab coat and high heels. She also wore a navy blue skirt and blouse. She was of Asian ethnicity with long black hair. Her face was thin and fragile, while her eyes gleamed like diamonds.

"Ah, Dr. Asagami. It's a pleasure to see you join us." Estrada said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"I understand you wanted to see me, sir?" Asagami said.

"Yes I do." Estrada said as he pulled up the stats of the giant creature on the screen.

"How goes the rest of project Alpha? And the inductee you have decided to name... Gilgamesh?" Estrada said.

"Yes sir. He is the farthest ahead of the project. So far his body augmentation has been completed. The only thing left is to insert the virtual relay synapses in his mind, which will allow his mind to move faster then an average super computer. At the same time it will allow him to interfere with any computer by merely concentrating on it. He, like the others, will be able to peruse your targets across both Lyoko and Earth." The young Asian said with resentment in her mind.

"And how goes the other part of the plan, Jerome?" Estrada asked.

"Five U.S. Senators, the Prime Minister of the United kingdom, and the entire French government." Jerome said in response.

"Excellent... All we need now is to convince the Titan Aether to work with us and the children will be as good as ours. And once the Hermes satellite is airborne, we will have the Earth, Aelita, and her so called Guardian in our hands." Estrada said.

"Sir...What will happen to the members of Project Alpha once we are done?" Asagami asked nervously.

Estrada said nothing as he turned to look back out the observation window, onto the operating room.

"Sir... These are innocent people. Four of them are children. What are you going..."Asagami asked before Estrada cut her off.

"I wonder how your dear friend Saki is doing?"

Asagami stopped as her heart jumped into her throat. The very name of her friend was enough to cause her to sweat in fear.

"Last I heard she was safe in sound in section 221. Imagine what would happen if one of the air valves were to be severed." Estrada said deviously.

"I Understand." Asagami said as she tried to walk out the room.

"Before you go... Perhaps you would like to see your next patient." Estrada suggested.

Asagami shuddered at the thought as she stepped out the room. She already had nightmares about her subjects when they came to her for indoctrination. She didn't want to see how they came to her in that state.

"I'm sorry sir. I have work to do." Asagami said as the door shut behind her.

Estrada stared at the door as he thought to himself just how she had acted, asking about her test subjects. Did she show compassion and remorse? Or was it just curiosity?

"Once project Alpha is finished... You know what to do with the good doctor, don't you?" Estrada asked Jerome, who nodded.

Meanwhile down in the operation room, Tasha began to panic. She was able to speak full sentences now. Her mind was sparking full of horrifying thoughts of what was about to happen.

"Please tell me whats going on... PLEASE?!" the young girl shouted.

One of the men in the lab coats approached her with a pair of round metal clamps. He bent down and placed them into Tasha's eye sockets, to keep her from closing her eyes.

"You will watch this." The doctor said as he stepped back.

Tasha stared in confusion as she suddenly heard a loud whirling noise. She looked over to see a doctor approach her with a strange looking machine.

The machine was triangular shaped with a round bottom. The machine had a large needle like object on it, which glowed white at the tip of it. The doctor placed the machine on Tasha's chest. As it suddenly glowed brighter and finally released a red beam which pointed straight down towards Tasha's chest.

Suddenly the loud whirling noise got louder as a second Doctor approached with a saw. He angled it downwards towards the young girl's arm as he prepared to cut.

All Tasha could do was scream in horror.

Estrada watched with a smile.

"We remove their humanity... to make them tools."


	5. Chapter 5

SkyLand

Puck stood next to a large mound of rocks in the Mountain sector. He was looking around the region vigilantly. Something was not right, yet he wasn't quite sure what it was. He could sense a kind of disturbance, as if Lyoko had changed recently. He had a feeling something bad was about to happen. It was silent before the storm.

He held out his hands. Bright, golden light shot from in between his palms. As the glow began to subside, in its place appeared Puck's staff. It was long, with translucent, light blue sections. On the bottom of the staff was a gold, lightning bolt shaped piece. On the top sat a circular, jewel orb. It was about the size of a baseball and was dark green with shades of teal in it, similar to a marble.

Puck raised the staff into the air and stabbed the ground with the lightning bolt piece. The virtual ground cracked and flickered at the impact. Puck took a step back and looked at the orb on top of the staff. The orb changed color from green to dark red; large splotches of red twisted around the orb as a bright red Xana symbol, The New Dawn symbol, appeared inside of it.

"Why now?" Puck sighed as he realized what it meant. He knew an attack was bound to happen again, but did not expect it this soon. "Why can't he just stay there and let them rest?"  
He pulled the staff out of the ground. The orb on top changed back to green.

"Puck, are you there?"

He was snapped back to reality when he heard Jeremy's voice call out his name. The young A.I. changed his composure.

"Sheesh… can I get a moment's rest without you pestering me?"

"Not now. We have an activated tower in the Sky sector. I'm sending the others to meet you in there."

"The… Sky sector?" Puck asked, surprised.

"Yes. We will also need to upgrade the others when they arrive. Can you get everything ready for the download?"

Puck folded his arms and turned away. "No."

"Uh... Why?"

"Because you gotta say _please_ first, twig."

"WHAT?! Oh come on, Puck." Jeremy said in frustration.

Puck heard a loud buzzing and whining noise. He looked up in time to see Aelita, Yumi and Odd appear in midair and land on the ground in almost perfect unison.

"Missed us?" Yumi asked.

"You three yes... Aelita's doofus boyfriend not so much." Puck said. "What do you see in that geeky moron?"

"Why, what's wrong?" Aelita asked.

"He's rude! He asked me to do something and didn't even say _please_! And he kisses you and his mother with that mouth?"

Aelita heard Jeremy breathe heavily over the intercom. Soon she put two and two together. It was obvious that Puck was messing with Jeremy like he did with everyone else recently.

Puck had been a bit of a prankster after they returned to Amines. Once upon a time he activated a tower, turned Jeremy's computer on and logged into YouTube, so he could Rick Roll Jeremy when he woke up in the morning. Puck also tampered with Yumi's alarm clock one morning. He set her alarm to ring a few hours earlier then it was supposed to. Yumi woke up in time to see the sunrise that morning. She couldn't go back to sleep afterwards. She was especially cross with Puck that time.  
The worst by far was the prank he pulled on William. He activated a tower and used a specter to wrap around William's bed while he slept and held him down for several hours. When William awoke the next morning he had to use the restroom and was unable to get up due to the specter he could barely see. He barely made it to the restroom after shouting at Puck from his dorm room door, causing some of the other students to believe he might of lost it. Obviously, it was all great fun for Mister Puck.

"OK... Puck, could you _please_ prepare everything we need to go to the Sky Sector?" Jeremy asked, slightly resigned.  
He had no idea what had gotten into Puck this time, but he would not risk being Rick Roll'd again. Also, they were in a hurry.

Puck grinned. "Now was that so hard? By the way, everything is ready. I set it up earlier."

Odd looked at Puck in confusion.

"What do you mean by _everything ready_?"

"Jeremy and Puck have been working on some upgrades for us," Aelita said. "We gotta go to Sector 5 and get them first. Then we can head to the Sky Sector."

In the meantime Ulrich and William landed on Lyoko. Soon afterwards the vehicles materialized in front of them.

"They're not all ready, unfortunately. We could give them to you now, but it might bug up your systems. What do you think, Puck?" Jeremy asked.

"Better wait and finish them. Ulrich and Yumi's weapons are ready but the others' are not. And like you said, if they were to bug up, we don't know what might happen to them."

"Like the time there were 3 Odds?" Aelita asked.

"Yeah. One is enough but three is just _hell_!" Ulrich joked, slugging his best friend in the shoulder.

"No, it wasn't. It reminded me how good looking I was." Odd said.

"Why didn't we go straight to Sector 5?" William asked as he hopped onto the Overwheel.

"Because I am landed here in the Mountain sector and it would be better if we all went at once instead of waiting on me." Puck said as he hopped on the Overboard with Odd.

"Guess we can get to Sector 5 the old fashioned way, huh?" Yumi revved up the engines on her new, slimmed down Overwing.  
After a redesign it looked more like a jet ski. It was now a fast machine that could even keep up with Odd's Overboard. It had a pair of rockets on the end and was very main stream and slim. It proved itself in the battle; Yumi had never been hit off it once.

Aelita waved her hand over her bracelet. A pair of pink, translucent wings appeared on her back. As soon as she leapt into the air, they drove off towards the edge of the sector.

As the gang made their way past the many obstacles and pitfalls of the sector, they noticed that there were no monsters anywhere in sight. The whole area was quiet.

"Jeremy, do you see any monsters on your end?" Ulrich asked.

Jeremy typed in a series of codes which allowed him to check every nook and cranny of the sector.  
"None at all. I've checked the whole sector and there is none," he confirmed.

"Maybe Aether accidentally activated the tower and forgot to bring backup. He isn't too bright after all." Odd suggested.

"Or maybe he's gathering them all in the new sector and waiting for us to show up," Yumi said as they approached the edge of the sector.

"Bring them on. I prefer big fights rather than small ambushes." William said, glancing at Yumi.

Aelita landed as her wings disappeared. She turned to face the rest of her friends, who climbed off their vehicles one by one. As the group approached the edge, their vehicles dematerialized. The entire group awaited the transfer sphere.

"OK Jeremy, we are ready whenever you are." Ulrich announced.

"There should be no monsters in Carthage." Puck said with a sense of satisfaction.

"Why's that?" William asked.

"Thanks to a new program Aelita and Jeremy created, the monsters can't materialize in Sector 5 unless a Titan like Aether or Xervix go in and activate a tower. Plus, half of Sector 5 is where we keep all our equipment and your new toys," Puck said.

Hearing that, Odd's excitement grew. "_New toys_? WHAT IS IT? WHAT IS IT? WHAT IS IT?!"

"It's a surprise, Odd... Sheesh." Puck said, annoyed.

"OK, stand by. I'm inputting the code now," Jeremy announced as he typed in the pass code _Scipio_.

The transfer sphere rose up from the edge of the sector. It hovered as it approached the six virtual warriors. A blue Xana symbol rotated around the orb as it approached. The orb slowly landed on the ground and opened up, revealing white glowing insides. The orb rotated around the group as it enveloped them in white light.  
As the light faded, the orb shot off at amazing speeds towards the end of the sector. The orb approached the end of the sector, which looked like a large metal tunnel jutting out of the air. It looked as if behind the tunnel, the virtual sea would continue for miles on end.  
The transfer sphere entered the tunnel as it left the Mountain sector. A series of lights and shapes flew past the tunnel as the sphere approached the heart of Lyoko.

Sector Five was a large blue jagged orb which was connected to several other passages similar to the one the transfer sphere had just gone through.  
The sphere entered the orb. It rotated around a blue chamber as it slowed down. Once it slowed down enough, it positioned itself in the center of the room and opened up, revealing its passengers. No sooner had the sphere stopped and began to rise to the ceiling than Odd dropped to his feet as his stomach once again lurched around.

"I'm getting so sick and tired of almost losing my lunch every time I use that thing." Odd said as he slowly stood up, holding on to his stomach.

In the lab, Jeremy continued to type in several more commands while Sissi stood behind him, watching his every move.  
"OK guys. Head to the center of Sector 5. I will have everything for you when you get there."

"Anything I can do?" Sissi asked.

"I'm sorry, not at the moment. I know you wanna go to Lyoko and help, but we need to figure out what this attack is and shut it down before it begins." Jeremy turned around to confront Sissi's depressed face. "Don't worry. Your time will come. We just didn't want to toss you into the blender right away."

Sissi sighed lightly. She felt a little better with Jeremy's words. She wished she would make a decision on joining the Warriors earlier.

The elevator doors hissed as the huge golden lock lit up. The door opened to reveal Travis and company. The three American agents stepped inside the lab and made their way over towards Jeremy's chair. They were still dressed in the same leisure clothes from the party earlier.

"What's the word so far?" Jessica asked as she stood next to Sissi.

"We were in the process of placing Puck back on Lyoko when the Super Scan picked up an activated tower in the Sky sector. I'm sending the others to shut it down, but we're not entirely sure if it's building up energy for an attack or if Aether has already launched an attack." Jeremy said, pointing to the six red dots on the screen which indicated the gang's current location.

"Maybe we should go drive around Amines and check to see if there's anything suspicious going on?" George suggested.

"Agreed. Jessica can stay here and help while George and I take a glance outside." Travis said.

George walked over to the medical area and grabbed some of the short wave radios sitting on a shelf. He handed one to Jessica. She flipped her radio on and tuned it to channel 3. She looked up at George, clicked hers on and blew into it for a microphone check. She heard her breath come through George's radio speaker, which was a clear sign they were on the right frequency.

"You guys take care." Jessica said.

"Call if you get lonely." George said. He turned to his left to face Travis. To his surprise, Travis was already standing in the elevator, waiting on his partner. George power walked over to the elevator and stepped inside just in time for the door to shut.

"Is Travis OK? He seems quiet." Sissi asked.

Jessica glanced down at Sissi. She had some idea of what was wrong with Travis, but she wasn't entirely sure about it. He mentioned his wife's passing a couple of times, but she didn't know any details about the ordeal. All she knew was she was gone and Travis seemed to be suffering from it a little too much. Jessica didn't have all the details on the matter, so she chose to remain silent.

Travis opened the door to the black Mustang GT and sat on the passenger seat of the vehicle. George jogged out of the elevator door and hopped inside quickly. He hit the ignition; he threw the car in reverse and prepared to back up the ramp that led down to the floor.

"So why is it hurting you this bad?" George asked. "Everyone's noticed you're down and quiet today. Even the kids."

Travis stared out the window for a few minutes with his index finger on his chin. He understood why George was bringing it up and more importantly why everyone was concerned. And they were right, he was taking it awfully hard this time; almost as hard as when Wendy died. He felt cold and distant the last few days. He didn't want to think about the ordeal anymore. He wanted to just enjoy the day and enjoy being with his friends.  
Instead, he was once again suffering from the same depression like years ago. He already visited Wendy's grave when they were in America getting the paper work for Aelita's gift and the paper work for their oncoming additions. Yet today was the anniversary of his wife's death and on the day, at the hour, he would travel to Wendy's grave and visit her. Perhaps that was what was wrong. He could not stop thinking about it.

"I'm not sure, George... I feel as if I let her down because I didn't come see her today. As of late I keep seeing her in my dreams. And it's getting to the point where I can't go through a day without my mind drifting back then..." Travis said.

As the Mustang pulled out on the street, George flipped on the local police scanner. Whenever a tower was activated, Xervix or Aether would openly use the activated tower to disrupt something on Earth and there was no exception to that rule as of late.

"Just stay strong, man... She would want that as well." George said as the CB scanner clicked on.

"How do I move on when it haunts me every day? How do I keep going?"

"Have faith." George said as he clicked on his blinker. "Have faith in God."

"Sometimes I wonder if God hates me." Travis said as he stared blankly at the buildings and road signs.

Upon superficial inspection the city center seemed perfectly normal. Soon the two agents drove out of the city and onto the beltway to check the suburbia.

It was when they drove away from the city when Travis noticed a black cloud in the distance. It seemed to stretch out for miles. It immediately felt out of place because of bright orange bolts of lightning that could be seen inside of it even from this far.

The freeway led the agents straight towards the strange looking storm.

On Lyoko, Aelita led the gang to a large elevator like panel on the side of one of the sector's walls. All six stood on the panel when it glowed. The elevator rose towards the middle of the wall and came to a stop. The wall behind the elevator seemed to rotate and shift, revealing a second room directly behind the original. The elevator then proceeded to follow its path to the new room – the hangar room.

"Meet our newest acquisition." Aelita smiled as she pointed towards the center of the room.

The chamber was large and wide, it was a size of a large house. In its center sat a big platform, which seemed to rotate around the room in a circular path. On the platform stood a holopanel and a small orange and white glowing chamber. Above the platform sat a series of four large rods, holding brackets with saucers that glowed on each side of the hangar. In between the brackets sat a long and narrow object. The object had a large round capsule like cabin on top. Below the cabin was a large narrow rod which housed four small space ship like vehicles that looked like the X-Wings from Star Wars, except for the X part to their wings.

"You guys rebuilt the Skidbladnir?" Odd asked in amazement.

"We did, and were working on heavily upgrading it and two other super vehicles for use on Lyoko." Jeremy said.

"Other super vehicles?" William asked in confusion.

"Yup. I will show you them when they're done." Aelita said.

"I'm getting sick of this secret crap... at least tell us what the new stuff is." Odd said.

"Oh come on, you act like a kid at Christmas." William said.

"Well, in a sense it kinda feels like it."

Yumi paused as she glanced up at the new Skidbladnir. She gazed at the jet black ship as she felt a sense of nostalgia sweep over her memories.

"I forgot how beautiful it was."

"I never got to ride in that thing. Is it fun?" William asked.

"You have no idea." Ulrich smiled as they walked in the direction the rest of the gang was heading.

Aelita led the gang over to the holopanel where the five chambers sat. Each chamber had a panel on the ground and a panel above it with six long arms protruding from the center of it. A faint blue light emanated from the two sections.

"What's this?" Odd asked curiously.

"I programmed it to download the upgrades into you. The upgrades are too big to be pre-downloaded when you guys virtualize. These will download them into you when you're ready. But for now you are here to pick up some new weapons for Ulrich and Yumi." Jeremy said over the intercom.

"So do we step into it or what?" Ulrich asked.

"Not yet... Not until the upgrades are ready. For now you guys will need to use this." Aelita said as she walked over to the holo terminal. The terminal activated as soon as Aelita stood in front of it.

Aelita swiped through the terminal. She pulled up four of the upgrades that Yumi and Ulrich would need. She preloaded the upgrades; a large white and blue arm came down from the top part of the platform. The arm lowered and protruded outwards. As it extended, a large blue and white glowing ring rose from its end, creating what looked like a large holographic sleeve.

Ulrich walked up and looked at the large panel in front of him. He slowly lifted his hand to touch the station like object. "So is this for the upgrades?"

"Yes. Last time we fought the Titans in Las Vegas we almost lost. And now that the System is inside Aelita, we will stand as the first and possibly last line of defense against them. Thanks to these upgrades we will gain some advantage over them." Jeremy said.

"Hang on... can Aelita activate the System from within Lyoko?" Yumi asked, looking down at her pink-haired friend.

"We did some calculations and it wouldn't work. And even if it did, the energy would destroy the Supercomputer along with everyone else inside." Aelita said as she flipped through a few screens on the holo panel. "If the Supercomputer were to explode, it would be as devastating as a nuclear bomb."

"Whoa... that's hard stuff." William said, glancing at Ulrich and Odd.

"Then let's make sure it does not explode, and let's make sure we remove Xervix for good and Travis can break down the computer carefully." Odd said, trying to lighten up the mood. "Besides, we've faced tough times before. We can defeat Xervix without Aelita ever using the System. And when Mal-Tech or whoever comes back... We will take them down James Bond style!"

Aelita smiled at Odd's comment. "We always do. Don't we?"

She turned around and continued working on the upgrades as she prepared the chamber.

"You bet we do." Ulrich said.

Aelita brought up a screen with a large series of codes on it. The codes were multi colored, indicating which codes were to be downloaded into which Warrior. She pulled up a series of green codes that were meant for Yumi and placed them in a new column that was directed towards the chamber.

"Okay, Yumi's first."

The sleeve on arm turned flashy green as it opened up, ready to proceed. Yumi looked at the upgrade station and turned to Aelita. A look of concern and nervousness washed over her face as she contemplated the risks.

" Just place your arm in the station sleeve and Jeremy will do the rest." Aelita said.

"As long as I stay in my body." Yumi said as she walked up to the chamber.

"Wait. What do you mean?" William asked.

"A while back there was an issue with the scanners and I accidentally put Yumi in Odd's body and vice versa." Jeremy said.

"Wow... That must have been awkward, and in more ways than one." William said.

Odd shook his head. "You have no idea. She hated me for a week."

Yumi stepped on the platform. She had some reserve about sticking her hand inside the sleeve, yet she trusted Jeremy and Aelita enough to finally push her arm inside.

The sleeve clicked as it tightened around the Yumi's arm. Yumi felt a little discomfort as she felt a tingling sensation. It wasn't really the entire process that was worrying her, it was that sensation. Whenever they were on Lyoko, they never felt pain or touch, except for occasional exhaustion and light-headedness.

Jeremy typed in a series of commands as he prepared to download the upgrades into Yumi's virtual form. His monitor flickered from one screen to the other with lightning speed.

"Ready Yumi?" he asked over the intercom, observing the screens.

"Uh... Maybe?" Yumi said nervously.

Ulrich walked over towards where Aelita stood working on the holo panel. He stood directly in front of Yumi.

"You'll be fine. I'm right here." Ulrich reassured her.

Yumi felt the tension leave her mind as she smiled. She breathed deeply as she looked on towards Ulrich. "OK Jeremy... I am ready."

William leaned over towards Odd and whispered in his ear: "Why is Yumi nervous?"

"Aside from the body swap, Yumi has a bad history with this computer. I think she's jinxed." Odd said quietly so as not to disturb the process.

Jeremy hit the Enter key. A progress bar appeared over Yumi's icon.

Back on Lyoko, the sleeve began to rotate as it lit up. Small peaks of blue and white creaked out of the arm as Yumi watched it closely. The tingling sensation was there, however it did not become worse like she feared; it stayed the same all the time. The light from the arm glowed intensely and finally shot out, hitting Yumi's body.  
Yumi flinched from the reflex of something hitting her. Her body tensed up. Her head tilted upwards in an attempt to protect her face.

After a few moments Yumi realized the beams weren't hurting her; in fact, she felt fine. She glanced over her body to see if anything was different. She was still in her own body and in one piece. Yumi began to calm down as she decided to let the station run its course and see where it goes.

Ulrich watched the glowing station with his girlfriend inside. He stood within eye contact with Yumi. Her well-being always concerned him. Yumi seemed to have bad luck with the Supercomputer. She was once dumped into the Digital Sea, she swapped bodies with Odd, then was stuck on Lyoko after Xana removed a piece of her DNA. Another time she was lost in the Digital Sea after a monster hit her Navskid.

A few months ago she was attacked by Aether and the Spiders, creatures smaller than a Kankerlat. They latched onto her virtual body and drained her life points slowly, then attached to another monster and injected her life points into them. It really weakened Yumi and even though she managed to return to Earth, it scared the hell out of Ulrich.

But what really scared Ulrich the most was the Titan that he and Yumi destroyed, Chaos. Chaos was a sick and twisted creature who wanted nothing more than see people suffer in pain. For some strange reason Chaos wanted Ulrich and Yumi to suffer the most. Ulrich remembered how Chaos threw Yumi off the edge of the Forest sector and how she watched Ulrich's face swell with fear over the thought of Yumi dead. Thankfully, Aelita arrived and saved her just in time.

When the final battle arrived, both Yumi and Ulrich fought with Chaos, and would have lost to the psychotic beast, had they not worked together. Since then the thought of Yumi going over the edge gave Ulrich nightmares. It made him more protective of her than ever.

"We are almost done." Aelita said as she watched the upgrades install inside Yumi's virtual body.

Odd noticed something happening to Yumi; he elbowed William and pointed towards Yumi's feet. Yumi's feet and ankles were glowing green; the glow was getting even brighter as they seemed to take form.

The sleeve stopped glowing as the light from the arms stopped. The sleeve clicked loudly when the arms slowly lifted up. The light subsided from the sleeve.

Yumi felt the discomfort leave her arm as she slowly pulled it out of the sleeve. She glanced at her arm and looked to see what might have been different. However, it still looked like the arm she placed in the sleeve originally.

"Aaaannnddd...Done." Aelita said with a smile as she turned to face Yumi.

"I don't feel or look any different." Yumi said, looking over at Aelita and Ulrich.  
Then she noticed Ulrich was looking down at her feet. Yumi glanced down and was amazed at what she saw.

A large metal bracket was wrapped around her calves. The bracket was purple and pink, much like her outfit. On the back near her calves was a large, flat and rounded metal arm. The arm was connected to what looked like a small soda can sized tube. The tube was positioned above the metal rods; it looked as if they were connected.

"Yumi... meet the high jump boots." Jeremy said.

"It's just like the boots off Metroid." William said in astonishment.

"That's where we got the inspiration from. It's one of my favorite games." Aelita said. "Now Yumi can jump high or in midair."

Yumi stepped off the platform. She glanced down at the back of her heels as she looked at the small metal bracket. It looked like the whole device was actually built into her shoes and costume. "How do they work?"

"Just jump into the air." Puck said.

Yumi walked away from the group and looked at her new shoes. She then squatted down fast and quickly hopped into the air. As soon as she reached the peek of her jump she felt her legs wiggle. A sudden burst of short red energy blasted out from end of her feet; they propelled Yumi to jump a second time. The propulsion from the second jump was almost enough to allow Yumi to touch the roof of the chamber. Yumi panicked a little when she suddenly felt gravity dragging her down. As her feet slammed into the ground, a small round bearing went from the top portion of the high jump boots to the bottom part. The small bearing absorbed the impact from the landing.

Yumi slowly stood up and turned to see the others, only to notice that she was practically unharmed by the jump or the landing.

"That was AWESOME! Do I get some?" Odd asked.

"Not yet. I'm still working on it." Jeremy said.

"Hurry up, will you?" Odd demanded, sounding impatient.

"So what other upgrades did I receive?" Yumi asked.

"Check behind you, it's attached to your back." Aelita said.

Yumi reached around and felt a tube like object touch her fingers. She reached further and wrapped her fingers around it. She pulled the rod from behind her back and glanced down at it. It was just a small metal rod. As Yumi continued to examine it, she heard the rod click; it suddenly extended outward into a staff.

The staff was chrome silver with small metal engravings, through which traced streaks of green light. Towards the middle of the staff was a dark green padded section that looked like a handle.

"This is great! It looks like a _bo_ staff." Yumi said as she twirled the staff around her hands. It was surprisingly light yet very durable.

"You can also attach your fans to it, so it can give you a bit of an advantage." Puck explained.

Yumi quickly rotated the staff around her body and snapped it on the ground. To her amazement, the staff scratched off the top layer of the ground, leaving a black and green, grid like design underneath it before the surface rebuilt itself.

"Talk about an arsenal, only thing she's missing is a pistol." William joked.

Aelita turned around and began flipping through the terminal once more. She brought up a section of yellow codes. She began to filter them through the terminal as she prepared for the next set of upgrades.

"Alright... now it's Ulrich's turn."

_Lyoko, Volcano Sector_

_Xervix's lair_

Typhoon stood at the base of Xervix's throne as he listened to the demands of his new master. Xervix explained to him everything that needed to be done so that not only could he be released from his prison, but also to achieve absolute domination over the gang and the rest of the world. It was strange, though. Why did Xervix want to acquire the System and Jeremy and Aelita? A conclusion could be drawn that there was another party that was after the System just like Xervix was. Typhoon couldn't put his finger on it.

"And that is why I created you. To free me from this worthless prison world and bring about their downfall." Xervix preached as he stared down at Typhoon.

"So I am to become the commander of your new army?" Typhoon asked.

"Indeed. A new generation of Monsters and Titans to challenge even the creature these humans call God. I want this world to survive, but not on the course it is on now."

"I understand. But I won't know what creatures to create if I don't know the weaknesses or strengths of these children."

"That is why I ordered Aether to activate a tower, so you can see just what we are up against," Xervix said as he raised up his left hand.

A large screen appeared in front of them and a picture of Aether appeared. Aether looked towards the screen as he gave his full attention to his master. He bowed lightly.  
"I am at your service, my master."

"You know what must be done... correct?" Xervix demanded.

"Yes master, the children have arrived on Lyoko. They should be here any minute."

Xervix glared at Aether. "And you know what will happen should you fail me this one last time?"

Aether sneered his upper lip a little as he looked towards Xervix. "Yes, master... No more mistakes."

Xervix waved his hand and the screen closed. He slowly placed his hands on his chin as he glanced down at Typhoon.

"What will happen if he fails?" Typhoon asked.

"He will be deleted. Either way, I don't expect him to do well. This will be a win-win situation."

_Sector Five_

The pedestal stopped glowing when Ulrich finished receiving his upgrades. The upgrade station released Ulrich's arm. The station's arm then pulled back up into the upper part of the pedestal and the machine shut down.

Ulrich stepped off the pedestal. "So… what's my upgrade?"  
He looked around his body. He turned to look around his left side when he spotted something on his hand. It looked like a bracket similar to Yumi's. But there was only one. The device was similar in design, but smaller and more condensed. A large yellow tube was attached to Ulrich's hand just below the wrist. Underneath the tube was a smaller circular object the size of a half dollar that was attached to the tube. The circular device glowed white as Ulrich examined it.

"Ulrich, meet your new grapple launcher." Jeremy said over the intercom.

"Grapple launcher?" Ulrich asked in confusion.

"It allows you to launch a grapple beam that can attach to almost any surface and either pull yourself in or hang from it." Jeremy said.

"Kinda like Spiderman." Aelita said as she stepped away from the holopanel.

Ulrich looked around his wrist for a triggering device. Yet he didn't see one anywhere on him. He flipped his arm multiple times as he tried to figure out how it worked.

As he threw his arm up, his thumb accidentally hit a small switch near the palm of his hand. The launcher suddenly fired; a white beam shot from the grapple launcher and hit a wall across from him. Before Ulrich realized what was happening, he was flying at full speed towards the wall. Ulrich slammed his shoulder into the wall. He shrieked a little from the impact as he fell down on his back with a loud thud.

"OK... That's how it works then." Ulrich moaned.

Yumi walked over to her boyfriend. Odd, William and Puck tried their best not to laugh loudly.

"You OK?" Yumi asked, holding her hand out.

"Yeah. I am fine." Ulrich said, grabbing a hold of Yumi's hand and pulling himself up.

"I was going to tell you that the trigger is in your palm." Jeremy said.

"Next time tell me in advance…" Ulrich said, sounding a little bitter.

"Hey come on, Peter Parker. At least you didn't fly off the sector." Odd said. "Besides... it was actually-"

"Utter one more word and I will test it out on you next, Odd!" Ulrich said, clearly embarrassed.

"Are we ready to go?" William asked, trying to change the subject.

"Yeah. Head to the north end of the sector and I will prepare the transfer orb to send you to the Sky sector." Jeremy said.

The six warriors made their way out of the Skid hangar and towards the north end of Sector 5. They arrived to find another transfer sphere waiting for them. The sphere rotated around and encased the six warriors inside it. It soon sped even faster and shot out of the roof of the dome area.

The sphere exited the digital sea near the edge of the Desert sector. It raised up high enough to pass the ledge and then shot outwards at high speeds towards the middle of the sector. Once the orb hit the middle part, it shot up once more into the air. The orb approached the ceiling of the Desert sector as it made a turn towards a small, lone tube.  
The sphere exited the tube on its other side. It reduced its speed as it finally arrived at the uncharted sector.

Back in the lab, Jeremy took note of the sector as it finally came on via the holomap. The sector was broken into several small and large pieces, similar to islands or rocks in the water. The sections floated in the air as if they were made of clouds. There was also a series of connecter pieces that linked the different parts to the other.

"Wow... it's like something out of a video game." Sissi noted as she glanced over Jeremy's shoulder.

"Like a level from Super Mario Brothers." Jessica added.

"I count only five towers. I see why Franz Hopper closed this sector off." Jeremy said.

"Wait, how can you tell?" Jessica asked.

Jeremy's fingers moved quickly on the keyboard as he whizzed through the series of commands. He struck the keys so fast, the others could not keep track of were his fingers were hitting.

The holomap changed from a clear blue and orange to a green outlook. The ground around the areas were highlighted green while others were dull grey.

"The coding for the ground repair and fragmentation system was never added. If something was to disrupt the coding for the surface on that sector, it would delete and not recover. In another sector like the Forest or Ice sector the coding is constantly running. But in the Sky sector, the coding was not installed and activated."

Jessica and Sissi slowly nodded their heads as they tried to comprehend what Jeremy just said.

Jeremy realized the kind of look they were giving him; it was the same confused look everyone would give him whenever they did not understand what he tried to explain.

"In short, the ground is fragile."

"Oh" Jessica and Sissi said simultaneously.

"Can't you program it in?" Jessica asked.

"I could, but it would take several hours to code it correctly. And we do not really have that much time." Jeremy said as he turned back around and flipped back to the status screen of his virtualized friends.

Jessica suddenly felt her pants pocket vibrate as her phone suddenly went off. The ringtone to Elephants "No rest for the wicked" echoed through the lab's walls as she glanced at the caller I.D. only to find a picture of George wearing a pair of Aviator glasses. She stepped away from the computer chair and answered her phone.

"Did you guys find anything yet?" she asked.

_Amines France._

_10 miles away from the city._

"Yeah. I think we found out what the attack is going to be."

He along with Travis were sitting in the car on the parking lot and staring at the large, ominous storm cloud, which was coming close to them dangerously fast.

"I thought the forecast for tonight was clear and humid?" George asked.

Travis confirmed with a nod. "It must of just formed here a few minutes ago... but to get this big so fast is unprecedented."

A gust of warm and humid air rushed inside the vehicle through open windows, ruffling around the two agents who sat inside it. A loud, vicious roar of thunder bellowed as the lightning flickered more and more.

"It looks like a living storm. And from the looks of it, it's moving towards the city." Travis noted as the wind picked up. He immediately shut the window.

"Can Xervix or Aether control weather?" George asked Jessica over the phone.

"_Jeremy says Xana has done it before. So that must be it."_ Jessica said.

"OK...We'll keep track of it for a while, but tell Jeremy that the tower better get shut off fast. If this thing gets into the city, it will feast on all the electricity there, then do Lord knows what."

Travis pulled out his cell phone as he planned to call the authorities and prepare the city for what might be coming.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning hit a telephone pole in a distance. The sound of the strike was deafening; the energy of the lightning was enough to snap the pole in half. To the agents' shock, instead of disappearing or fading, the bolt continued to latch onto the pole and the wires connected to it. The bolt continued to grow as it fed off the energy from the power lines.

"Looks like that time of the month again for storm off the X-men, huh?" George joked.

"Just drive, man!" Travis shouted.

George threw the Mustang into reverse as a tree nearby was suddenly ripped out of the ground and fell onto the road in front of them. A large blast of red and orange energy shot out from the storm cloud and slammed into the ground next to the Mustang. The ground surged with red and orange energy when it suddenly exploded, leaving a smoldering crater.

"HOLY SHIT!" both agents said in unison.

George got the gas pedal floored; the black car pulled out of the parking lot as fast as it could. George slammed on the breaks and turned the wheel, causing the car to perform a complete 180 degree turn. As soon as the Mustang was facing the opposite direction, George threw the shifter into drive and slammed his foot on the gas pedal once more.

"Of all the times I ever needed a Mulligan!" George said as he slammed his foot onto the accelerator.

"Screw it. Its Burt Reynolds time, get us the hell out of here!" Travis shouted as a second bolt of energy hit the ground behind them.

The transfer sphere lowered onto a single oval platform and opened up, revealing the six passengers inside in a bright glowing light. No sooner then the sphere rose into the air to disappear, Odd gagged loudly as he fell to his hands and knees and eventually laid on his side.

"That was hands down the worst one. If there was ever a time you could throw up on Lyoko, that was it." Odd said as he continued to cough.

"I feel like it did a number on me too," Aelita said as she felt her belly as well.

Yumi pointed to the structure and the design of the brand new sector. "Look at this place."

The Sky sector was decorated with several clouds. Some were massive while others were tiny. There was a large cloud towards the back of the sector that resembled a storm cloud. It was dark and twisted with hints of lightning inside it every once in a while.  
The clouds seemed to dominate the design of the new sector greatly. On each of the clouds sat large stone like surfaces; some even had cave like structures on them. The stone paths were grey in color in some areas and tan in others. Many of the clouds were also connected through a series of hollow breeze way like tubes. The tunnels were held in place with the paths via a series of large silver chains.

There was also a large amount of prickly looking bushes and plant like objects that adorned the pathways. In between the clouds in some areas floated a few metal, purple colored platforms that seemed to follow an invisible path. The light reflected off the clouds and different objects in the sector, giving it golden like coloring. It looked as if it was in fact a sector suspended in the sky at sunset.

"Wow. These new sub levels impress me even more." Ulrich said as he walked forward.

"Jeremy? Are you seeing this?" Aelita asked.

"I got it on the holo map... Can I get a visual?"

Aelita closed her eyes and concentrated on a visual link between her and Jeremy. Within a few seconds, she connected with Jeremy's computer and started the uplink to his monitor.

A screen popped up on the monitor in the lab. Jeremy, Sissi and Jessica gazed in awe at the layout and the structure of the sector.

"So that's Lyoko, huh?" Jessica asked.

She admired the details of the sector. It reminisced a video game level or a scene from a movie like _Avatar_. It was quite an impressive feat for someone to build an entire world like this and not share it with the rest of the world, Jessica thought. She wondered why exactly Lyoko was programmed and designed to mimic a video game. Was it to hide Lyoko's true purpose or was it for Aelita?

Yes. It must have been. Aelita's father must of planned for the event that Mal-Tech would come for her and created a world where she could not only be safe, but not go insane from boredom. But then again why create a world that looks like a video game? Why not just create a world similar to her home? Why this? Why Lyoko?

Jeremy clicked on the map.

"I got a few details on the new sub sector. The only way to travel is on the clouds that have either the stone pathways or the tubes. But the stone pathways are fragmented, meaning that too much weight or too much damage from, say, laser fire or fighting will damage and destroy them. Plus, this sector hangs over the virtual sea… so whatever happens, don't fall in."

"Basically its like the level from Kid Icarus then?" Odd asked.

"More or less." William noted as he reached down and touched the stone floor on the nearest cloud.

To his surprise, the path was smooth, like a freshly painted piece of rock, yet he noticed that even by touching the surface, the cloud swayed a little. It was a clear sign that jumping on these platforms might be dangerous. It would be similar to jumping from a boat on water to another boat.

"We need to input our virtual imprints into this sector so that if we devirtualize, we go back to the scanners." Aelita said as she walked to the edge of the sector.

"Surprisingly there are only five towers. "Jeremy said.

Then, he noticed a familiar object next to the activated tower. He moved his cursor over to the storm cloud.

"That's weird, there's another Pyramid."

"A Pyramid?" Sissi asked in confusion. "What's with the Pyramid?"

"In the cave sector we discovered a Pyramid that held all the info about what the System is. But it also sent a signal to another location on Lyoko. I discovered that these sub sectors have access to the main memory of the supercomputer and Lyoko." Jeremy said as he entered in another series of commands. Within seconds, the holopanel zoomed out of the Sky sector and zoomed into Sector 5. Below sector 5 a larger sector could be seen. "That is what we call the City sector. It holds all the memory of Lyoko inside it. But to access it we need to activate the Pyramids in the Cave sector which we already did, the Sky sector, the Ocean Sector, and the Volcano sector. We don't know what might happen if we do unlock the City sector. We're not sure what's in there."

"Maybe you should examine it after you delete Xervix?" Jessica suggested.

"Maybe…" Jeremy returned the holomap back to the sky sector.

"Ok guys, you know what to do... but be careful till Aelita adds your codes in there. You're vulnerable till then. The nearest tower is towards the left a few yards. We didn't see any monsters on the way in, so they're more than likely waiting for you here."

The gang started sprinting off in the direction of the tower. William led the group while Aelita and Puck ran in the middle. All the while they kept their heads on a swivel as they watched for any sign of ambush, or Aether for that matter.  
The gang approached one of the tunnels that led towards a nearby tower. The tunnel was just wide enough for one person to climb through at a time. The tunnel swayed in the air as the cloud shifted.

Odd stepped in front of the group and looked down the tunnel.  
"Better do this one at a time. I don't think it could hold everyone's weight," he suggested.

Odd slowly placed a foot on the floor of the tunnel. He pressed down hard on it as the floor glowed from his contact. Slowly the teen raised his other foot and placed it on the same ground. To his surprise, the ground seemed sturdy and stable enough to support him.

The tunnel shifted a little in reaction to Odd's movement. It drifted towards the right, but came to a stop and drifted back towards the left as the chains it was attached to clinked and clanked together.

Odd slowly walked across the tunnel and stepped onto the stone surface that sat on top the cloud. Odd turned around and waved at the others. They started to make their way through the tunnel one by one.

Unbeknownst to them, they were being watched.

A lone Kankerlat sat perched on top of one of the caves that sat in the air. Its singular Xana shaped eye kept focusing on the children as it ran a series of scans on them. It sent the feed from its eye back to the Volcano sector, where Xervix and Typhoon observed and studied their foes.

"Are these six our enemies?" Typhoon asked.

"Correct... these are the arrogant creatures that defeated me." Xervix growled as he looked over at the holo screen.

Xervix felt rage build up inside him as he watched the children cross the breeze way and run again. Such worthless and repulsive specks of human trash… these children were only delaying the inevitable. Xervix wanted nothing more then to see them dead, with Jeremy and Aelita in his grasp.  
Why did they fight him? He offered them the world and yet they had turned him down. He could of made them gods and goddesses. Instead, they chose to remain incompetent, like a group of disgusting cockroaches that refused to accept defeat. His quarrel wasn't with the children originally, yet now they chose to stand against him. Xervix planned to make them pay for such a stance.

Typhoon watched the screen as he made several notations about the children. The Kankerlat continued to observe the gang while showing the newest Titan their stats: their powers and abilities on one side and their weaknesses on the other. However, it was not enough of an observation. Typhoon needed to know what these children were capable of when they are faced with a serious opponent - one who can keep them busy long enough not to think, but to act instead. He needed more than just a video feed. He needed to see how they performed under fire.

"Master Xervix.. Might I request a more... offensive observation?" Typhoon asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Master... Scans of what the children are capable of is one thing… but a demonstration of their fighting prowess is another," Typhoon said as he approached the throne. "I understand my fellow Titan Aether is currently awaiting to attack the children. But what if there was something new for them to fight as opposed to something they do know?"

"Such as?" Aether asked.

"May I create a new monster type for them to battle?" Typhoon asked. The black knight looking monster held out his hand; a reddish orange glow emanated from it.

"I see no reason as to why you shouldn't." Xervix said with a gesture of his hand.

Typhoon turned around and held out his hand, which glowed brightly as he charged up his energy. He was focusing on summoning a new monster.

Within seconds a Scyphozoa materialized from above them and landed on the ground in front of Typhoon. The monster stood there as it awaited its command.

"First we overwrite its main programming and input a new one." Typhoon said as he shot the orange energy out of his hand.

The energy struck the monster. It reeled from the blast. The beast froze in place, its skin turned black. Then, the body began to shake and rock; the blackened body began to crack and shake as a new creature was growing inside it. The body began to shake violently and ferociously as parts of the squid like monster's body began to break off. Glimpses of a new monster's body could be seen through the cracks. The long tentacle like parts soon crumbled and fell off, leaving the trunk floating above the room.

Suddenly, the black shell exploded into several pieces. The charred parts of the Scyphozoa flew through the air as they evaporated into pixels.

Typhoon and Xervix witnessed the new monster land on the ground in front of them.

The new creature had a long, snake-like body that stretched throughout the chamber. Its skin was greenish red with a hint of white along the sides of its body. Its head was massive with a large jaw full of razor sharp, prong-like teeth. Its body was rough and ridged with several large, bone like plates jutting out along its spine and on its belly. On the very center of its forehead was a large black orb with a red New Dawn symbol inside it. Its eye was covered with what looked like bumps that covered the entirety of the orb, very similar to the eye lens of a praying mantis. On its head sat a magnificent pair of horns that twisted and merged together on its head. The horns bowed downwards and ran across from its head like a pair of tusks.

"Meet our newest heavy offensive monster, The Hydra." Typhoon announced as he turned to face Xervix.

Xervix admired the creature's size and features. It was certainly large enough to do some damage, but would it prove its worth on the battlefield?

"Its certainly impressive… but is it worth the effort you put into it?"

"Just watch and see, master." Typhoon assured as he turned to the beast. He then pulled his left arm straight out and pointed towards his left.  
The Hydra bellowed loudly as the plates on its spine and belly glowed green. They continued to glow intensely as the Hydra suddenly lifted off the ground.

"It can levitate?" Xervix asked.

The Hydra then flew out of the throne room. Its body was twisting and slithering in the air, similar to that of a snake. The beast bellowed into the red atmosphere as it approached the edge of the Volcano sector.

"This may prove most intriguing." Xervix said.

_Amines. 5 miles outside the city._

"The national weather service has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the entire listening area including Amines, West Central and South Amines. At 7:20 pm radar weather indicated an unusual and strong moving storm system heading directly for the city of Amines." the radio announcer said as the black Mustang was driving back towards the city.

The freeway was full of pedestrians attempting to leave the interstate so they may find some form of shelter from the approaching storm.

"How long do you think till the storm hits Amines?" George asked.

"At the rate it's going and the speed... 20 minutes give or take." Travis said as he watched an arch of lightning race through the clouds. "You told Jeremy and Jessica, right?"

"Yup, they are fully aware of what's going on. The kids are on Lyoko as we speak trying to stop the storm."

"Better text them and tell them time's running out then." Travis said.

George was about to say something when he glanced over to the right of the shoulder. He spotted what looked like a person wearing a black robe.

George switched lanes as he pulled over to the side of the shoulder. He threw the car in park and quickly stepped out. The concrete ground was damp from the light drizzle that was now currently falling. As George glanced down the shoulder of the highway, he could barely make out the figure.

"What are you doing? We gotta go, George!" Travis said as he stepped out of the car.

George pointed at the robed figure. "Who's that?"

Travis glanced down and spotted the person in question. At first glimpse they looked like someone wearing a poncho. But the robe was long and dark. It looked as if it was made out of some black leather like material. Long and thick, the coat swayed in the wind as the figure continued to look at Travis and George, not saying a word and not moving a muscle. It just stood there, like a statue.

"Should we go see who this is? This might be a Titan..." George suggested as he reached around for his pistol. He brought it around him and pulled the slide back as he chambered a fresh round into the barrel.

"Yeah, let's go, but keep an eye on that guy and the storm." Travis suggested as he mimicked George's behavior.

The pair of agents slowly walked towards the robed figure as passing cars zipped by at high speeds. Travis kept his eye set on the figure as he tried his best to keep his Colt 1911 .45 caliber pistol by the side of his leg so that no one would notice.

The two agents closed in on the stranger enough to make out several details. They were wearing a large robe and not a rain coat or poncho, and that the figure was staring right at them. The person still refused to move or yield to the two approaching F.B.I agents. They just stood there, as if expecting the agents to approach.

Before the two agents could say anything, red and orange lightning crackled across the sky. The bolt streamed off into several smaller bolts, which lit up the dark evening sky as the surge of electricity covered the entire storm cloud. After the bolt dissipated, the power around the entire city went off. All cars came to a stop as their batteries died instantly. There was not a single light on in the entire area.

Travis and George watched the lightning bolt flow from the back of the cloud to the entire storm itself. It wasn't like when the lightning bolt drained the electricity from the telephone pole. This was almost like an instant surge, a clear sign the storm was growing in strength.

George turned back towards the area where they spotted the possible Titan to discover the individual had left.

"Travis, the guy's gone!" George said frantically.

"Nevermind. The storm's heading down towards the river… straight to the factory. And with all that energy it's absorbing, imagine what it would do if it released it!"

_Lyoko, the Sky sector._

The gang quickly traversed the new sector as they drew closer to the nearest tower. The journey was rough, considering that Odd and Ulrich had almost fallen off the new sector twice now. But at last the tower was within reach.

"Now that we are almost there, should some of us split up to head to the activated tower?" Yumi suggested.

"Not yet. There's still no sign of Aether anywhere. I'm really getting nervous." Jeremy said as he continued to type in the commands to the computer in search for any sign of Aether or other monsters.

"Where are they? I'm itching for a fight right now." Odd said as he ran on all fours.

"Don't jinx us, Odd. Its hard enough with this new sector and all… let alone fighting on it." Ulrich grunted.

"Too late... You got incoming." Jeremy warned over the intercom.

Suddenly, a laser blast shot out. The laser skimmed past Odd, making him come to a halt. Odd glanced up to spot five Hornets and three Mantas flying in a formation towards them. The Hornets flew in a dive bomb pattern while the slower Mantas began to separate and surround the kids.

"Odd, Puck, get Aelita to the tower!" Ulrich shouted as he drew his blades.

Odd led Aelita and Puck to the tower. The young cat teen turned to notice one of the Mantas and two of the Hornets separate from the formation to chase them three.

Puck held out his hands; a bolt of light shot through his hands, revealing his staff. He turned and swung his staff into the air. A blue pulse like wave flowed out of the staff and towards the monsters.

The pursuing monsters raised their altitude to avoid the pulse. As the pulse slid past them, the Hornets began firing at the trio. Their lower bodies protruded forwards as lasers shot out of their stingers.

The lasers peppered the ground as the gang sprinted towards the tower. Pieces of the stone path shook loose as the walkway kept on deteriorating under impact of the lasers.

"Guys, be careful, the path could break from all of the stress of us fighting!" Aelita shouted as she waved her hand over her wrist. A pair of pink glowing wings shot out from her shoulder blades; she jumped into the air.

"Whatever you do Aelita, don't get hit!" Jeremy warned with a hint of worry in his voice.

Aelita made a U turn towards the monsters. Her hands glowed bight pink as a pair of orbs appeared in her palms. As she closed in on the perusing monsters, she fired one Energy Field.

The orb flew past the Hornets; the Manta quickly turned left to avoid being struck.

Aelita closed within a few inches on the two Hornets. She flapped her wings faster so that she could gain more speed and momentum. She closed her fist.

"Aelita! What are you doing?" Jeremy said frantically.

"You've heard of the Falcon Punch? This is the Aelita Punch!"

Aelita's fist slammed into the Hornet. The energy orb exploded as the Hornet flew away fast in the opposite direction. Aelita then turned and fired a second energy field at the second Hornet. The pink energy encased the Hornet. The blast clipped its wings, causing it to shatter and explode. The last monster screeched and yelped; the Manta fired several shots towards the pink teenager.

Aelita held her hands out. Two Energy fields formed in both of her palms. The orbs connected together through a pink bar of energy, so she could block the laser blasts with it. Aelita then fired both orbs at the same time; they continued to absorb the Manta's volley. The two beams hit the Manta, causing the monster to chirp and scream. It raised into the air and exploded.

"More like Aelita Smash..." Odd joked.

"Well, seeing how the ground would of gave in, I had to do something." Aelita said as she floated above Odd and Puck. "Sorry about that, Jeremy."

"Its OK Aelita. One, you did good and two, I am used to a heart attack by now." Jeremy joked as he smiled.

"I'm not. I thought for a minute she was done..." Jessica said. "You need to be more careful, kids. I know you kids have been doing this for a while, but please take care of yourselves."

"Yes, Mom." Puck said jokingly.

"What did you say?" Jessica said.

Aelita landed next to Odd and Puck as they approached the tower. The large cigarette like structure stood on a large rock patch which sat on a cloud. A blue hue echoed off the tower.

"I will enter the tower so that at least we don't have to fear the monsters devirtualizing us." Aelita said as she approached the entrance.

Puck suddenly felt a strange surge rush through his body. It felt like a chill or a jolt of energy. Puck turned to look around the sector as he began to panic a little. Something didn't feel right. It felt like something was coming. He quickly swung his staff in front of Aelita, stopping her from approaching the tower any more.

"Jeremy...Could you scan the area?" he said with concern.

"I have been. You've got some Blocks and Sentries on your way. You better hurry." Jeremy said.

"We do not have a lot of time. We need to hurry, Puck." Aelita said as she swatted Puck's staff away from her and marched forward towards the tower.

"No... check the tower." Puck said.

Jeremy looked up in confusion as he typed in a series of codes. A separate screen popped up and began scanning the tower. It was an old program he used to locate Aelita. The scan swept through the tower, searching for any possible occupants inside it. After a few seconds there was a loud ping, followed by an exclamation mark icon.

"GUYS! GET HER AWAY FROM THERE!" Jeremy shouted when he processed the results of the scan.

Aelita placed her hands on the sides of the tower as it rippled and glowed.

"Aelita, wait!" Puck shouted as he ran towards her.

Odd, who was closer to Aelita, sprinted forwards. He quickly reached out and grabbed the young elf's hand and pulled her back in time.

A fine and thin crimson red beam shot out of the tower entrance, causing the entrance to explode with great force.

Odd held onto Aelita as he jumped backwards away from the explosion. He brought up his shield to protect both of them from the blast. Aelita squealed as the beam and the following explosion startled her. Odd landed on his feet and let go of Aelita. He took up a defensive stance and pointed both his arms towards the tower.

Aelita recovered her composure and watched the beam dissipate. She instantly took up a defensive stance as well as she realized who the crimson red beam belonged to. It was a memory that Aelita remembered all too well.

As the smoke cleared from the destroyed section of the tower, a lone silhouette appeared. Its large wings rose into the air as it gave a more sizable depth to the villain. In its hands it carried a pair of large dagger like blades. The blades glistened in the light of the sector as the beast came into view. Its eyes glowed a bright and vibrant orange, piercing from its shadow. The villain stopped a few feet from the tower entrance and pointed one of its daggers directly at Aelita and Odd.

"Prepare for extermination!" Aether declared with a smirk. The last of the original Titans jumped into the air and closed in for an attack.

Here is the long awaited 4th part of World Without Fear.

Yes we are introduced to a brand new sector hinted on in New Dawn. And let me tell you it is hard to create a new sector from scratch and to make it both unique and original. In this case its been inspired by other games with sky levels such as Bioshock infinite and Kid Icarus.

For this story as well i will be giving the gang a brand new set of weapons and abilities. Ulrich and Yumi's are only the tip of the iceberg if you will.

And who could the character in the cloak be? friend? Foe? Or Neither and both?

Chapter 5 coming in 2-3 weeks

now... COMMENT OR I WILL DROP YOU FROM THE SKY SECTOR LIKE A


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